Grounded
by balthezarian
Summary: News from a routine physical leaves Noin unable to fly and changing her entire life.
1. Chapter 1

Noin groaned as she leaned back in her office chair. This was not what she had been trained for. This was not what she had spent her life getting ready for. This was not anywhere in her life plan, and it never had been. Never, in her life, had Lucrezia Noin thought that she would have to deal with this many loads of paper work.

Ever since the Preventers had been formed, she had found herself spending more time behind a desk and less time in the cockpit of a mobile suit. She knew that she was doing something good, not to mention necessary, for humanity. But that didn't change the fact that she was, and would always be, a soldier.

And soldiers are not pencil pushers!

A quick knock sounded at the door. "May I come in?" a voice called through the office door.

"Please!" Noin responded, sitting up quickly. The room seemed to spin for a minute when she did, but the adrenaline rush that comes from _anything_ after that much boredom could do that.

A bright young face popped through her doorway. "Not that this is going to stop me, but you're not busy right now, are yah?"

Noin couldn't help but laugh. "Duo, there is nothing in the world that I would rather be doing right now that this…than this…_this_!" she exclaimed, gesturing toward the piles and piles of paperwork littering her desk. "What's up?"

"What, a guy can't just drop in on his superiors and bug them about every little aspect of their lives until their brains explode?" the young man asked, an innocent look on his face.

"Under normal circumstances, soldier, you would be written up for even thinking of such a thing," the general replied, a mock glare on her face. "However, in light of certain circumstances, I feel that we can forgo it this one time."

The braided young man bounced all the way into the office, sitting on top of the desk with no regards to the paperwork. "And what circumstances would these be, oh mighty commander of men?"

Noin stood up and clasped her arms behind her back. "Number one, you are a top flight pilot and soldier, and it would be a shame and a disgrace to this operation if you had a black mark on your record. Number two, you hold the capabilities to erase anything that may be put in your files anyway, making any formal write-up a moot point. And finally, I don't want any more damn paper work to do!"

Duo laughed, kicking his feet up as he hopped off of the desk. "Don't I know it! Man, I hate how every move I make now has to be documented, and then the documentation has to be documented, and now I can't even take a leak without someone trying to take notes on it! I mean, every little thing is…"

"Duo!" the tall woman interrupted. "Is there an actual reason for you being here?"

"Huh?" Deathscythe's pilot blinked. "Oh, yeah. Une's calling a meeting in our lucky conference room in, like, twenty minutes, and I told the guys I'd let you know about it."

Noin couldn't help the groan that escaped her lips. "Oh, God, I hate these things," she said, rubbing her temple. "The 'lucky conference room' meetings are never a good thing. Hell, the last time we had one, the world was being taken over by an eight year old girl with a God complex while her grandfather tried to undo the very structure of society."

"No kidding," Duo agreed. He raised an eyebrow in the direction of his superior. "Hey, Noin, are you alright? You don't look so hot right now."

"What?" the woman snapped.

Duo took two steps backwards, waving his hands defensively. "Not that you're not hot, Noin! You're a slammin' hottie! Not that I'm looking at you, or that I think of you in that way in any capacity! I would never violate our working relationship in that way! Not that I only see you as my boss or anything! We love hanging out with you. You're one of the guys! Not that I'm calling you a man or overly masculine! See, what I'm trying to say here is…"

"Duo, shut the hell up!" Noin shouted, a hint of a smile on her face. "You'd think that after all the time you spent with Heero, you'd have learned to be quiet by now."

"Are you kidding me? That guy is so quiet that he makes me talk more!"

Noin shook her head. It was moments like this that made it hard for her to believe that just four and a half years earlier, they'd all been trying to kill each other. Duo had only been a boy when she'd first met him, no matter what he might have claimed back then. He had only been fifteen. One of the best soldiers in the world, but fifteen nonetheless. Now, here he was, freshly turned twenty, and one of her closest friends.

"What time, exactly, is this meeting supposed to be taking place?" she asked.

"2100 hours," Duo replied, walking for the door. "And if you don't mind, I'm gonna run down to the cafeteria and grab something to eat. I'm starving, and I think that Une's going to shoot me if another one of her meetings is interrupted by my stomach growling."

Noin laughed out loud. "I wasn't sure whether I should laugh or be afraid when she actually pulled a gun on you at our last meeting. With her personality…"

"Singular?"

"…you can never tell," she finished, grinning at her friend. "So go and get something to eat, and I'll meet you down there in thirteen minutees."

Duo's eyes bugged out as he looked at his watch. "I only have thirteen minutes?!?" he cried. "I gotta go!" With that, one of the deadliest men in the world scurried out of the door, terrified of the deadliest woman.

Noin laughed, watching the so called God of Death flee. She walked back to her desk and sat down at her chair, once again leaning back. Something had to be seriously wrong for them to be meeting in that room, particularly this late at night and on such short notice. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't going to make her headache go away. With a very quiet groan, she rested her head in her arms, wondering how this day could possibly get any worse.

If only she knew…


	2. Chapter 2

The Lucky Conference Room.

After the incident with Mariemaia, the Preventers had deliberately stopped using it. It was just like any of the others in the headquarters. It was the same size as all of the other regulation rooms. It had the same chairs, the same tables, the same technology, the same everything. What made it the Lucky one was, well, luck. It was the room they had been standing in when Mariemaia had made her declaration of war. It was the room they were standing in when it seemed like everything they had fought and suffered for was about to fall apart. It was the room they were standing in when, for the first time in a year, they had felt that smallest twinge of fear for the future.

It was only one incident, one thing that happened one time, but it had been enough to make the Preventers never want to set foot in it again. Most of them hadn't even been present when it had happened, but the room was so closely associated with an abrupt war and near catastrophe that it had been put off limits. Unless, of course, history was repeating itself.

Noin let out a sigh as she pushed open the conference room doors. She didn't want to come off as afraid. She wasn't. But given the circumstances, she couldn't help but feel a tad nervous. After all, Une was the one that had deemed the room off limits. Either it had finally been long enough for the elder woman to stop caring…or something was very, very wrong.

As she walked in, she relaxed slightly at the sight of her fellow Preventers. Heero, Wufei, Trowa, and Une were already in there, sitting at the central table. None of them were smiling, but Noin wasn't sure she had ever seen any of those people smile, so she paid it no mind.

"Miss Noin!" called Quatre, coming in behind her. "It's so good to see you again!"

Noin felt a wave of relief wash over her as Quatre hugged her. If something had been seriously wrong, that young man would have come in with a look of worry in his eye, not smiling and hugging. She hugged him back, grateful for his presence. He had always had this odd, calming sense about him, and it always soothed her. Well, maybe not when she was being shot at, but it seemed to work at virtually all other times.

He had grown a fair amount over the course of the last few years, now the same size she was. His voice had also lowered, by almost an octave. Noin couldn't help but smile as she remembered how high his voice was when they had first met. In all honesty, she hadn't been a hundred percent sure that he was, in fact, a he.

"It's good to see you too, Quatre," she smiled at him. She turned and gestured to the table. "Shall we take our places?"

"Of course," the Arabian heir responded, still smiling gently. He approached the table and sat in his chair as Noin took her place across from her as Une rose from hers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the hour is 2100," Une opened in a very no-nonsense tone. "I hereby call this meeting of the Preventers…"

The door burst open as Duo plowed his way inside, a sandwich sticking out of his mouth. "I'm here," he muttered, his words muffled by the food in his mouth. He slid into his chair, his cheeks stained bright red.

Une glared at him over her glasses. She didn't wear them often, but she was intimidating as hell when she did. "Maxwell, it is bad enough that you dare come to a military meeting late…"

"By thirty seconds," he mumbled. His eyes bugged out as he realized that he had said those words out loud and slunk down in his seat.

"…but you dare come in late, and then you have the audacity to make smart ass comments to a superior officer?" she finished.

Duo opened his mouth on automatic reflex, but upon feeling Heero stamping down on his foot, he decided to snap it shut again. At that exact moment, he felt more like a child with his hand caught in the snack jar than a war veteran. After a moment, he quietly responded with, "Sorry, ma'am."

While Une felt an almost overwhelming urge to reprimand him, there were significantly more pressing matters at hand. "This meeting has been called due to an urgent matter," she began again. "At 1900 hours today, a message was received from one Martin Malthis. As some of you may know, former General Malthis was once one of the heads of the United Earth Sphere Alliance, and deemed a major player in the political world." Une pressed a button on the table to bring down the projector screen, and another to bring up the first slide.

The six gathered pilots all leaned forward to get a good look at the man on the screen. He was a seemingly large man, dressed in an old UESA uniform. His hair was pure white, and his face was well covered with a beard and a mustache. His eyes were dark green, and seemed to be full of anger.

"He is apparently displeased with the Preventers, and has issued a demand that we disassemble immediately," Une continued. "In his message, he stated that we hold too much power for a new organization, that we are too young to know what to do for this planet, and that if we care about the wellbeing of future generations, we will disband and turn our jurisdiction over immediately."

Duo snorted, glaring at the screen. "So, some crazy, washed up general from a now defunct military group thinks we're just going to hand over everything we've been maintaining for the last few years because he says so? That's what this meeting is about?"

"Duo!" Quatre mildly scolded.

"What?" Duo responded. "He's a loon! Tell him no, arrest him, and call me in the morning!"

"Maxwell!" snapped Une and Wufei simultaneously. Une went on with, "Are you really so idiotic as to think that I would bother involving any of you if this were not a pressing matter? Do you honestly believe that I would have summoned six of the seven best pilots in the world if this were a simple case of a single raving madman?"

Again, Duo slunk down in his chair. "Well, then can we at least know why this loon is a _scary_ loon? And where, by the way, is the seventh one of us?"

Heero wordlessly smacked Duo in the back of the head, glaring at his copilot. The other Gundam pilots seemed slightly confused by this action, but figured that there was an explanation for it. Noin simply looked down at her hands, and Une looked like she was just about ready to pull her gun on pilot 02 yet again.

"Preventer Wind has been working under cover for us for the last six weeks," Une answered through clenched teeth.

_Forty four days and counting, _Noin thought.

As Une tried to go on, Duo raised his hand.

"What is it, Maxwell?" she shouted, a vein ready to pop out of her head.

Duo just smiled at his commander. "Since _we're_ not the enemy, and we all know each other's code names and everything, can't we just say Zechs? I mean, that's what we all know him as. Isn't it just easier that way?"

Une didn't bother giving him a direct response. "We have suspected Malthis for several weeks now, believing that he was forming some form of militia with the tattered remains of the UESA. He has made comments to the media before about his feelings about the Preventers, claiming that we are nothing more than OZ reincarnated. His accusations at us and slanderous statements have increased steadily over the years, and we have recently had reason to believe that he is, in fact, a major threat to the planet and the colonies alike."

With the press of a button, a new slide popped up. "As you can see here," the commander continued, "we were, unfortunately, correct in our beliefs. The image you are seeing before you was taken by our undercover agent. The weapons in this hangar have the capability to take out an entire colony, _each_. What we are seeing before us is, we believe, only the beginning. They hold eight completed ones in their possession, and are reportedly working on at least two dozen more."

No one was making comments any more.

"In his message," Une said, a grim look on her face, "General Malthis also said that, should we attack or simply refuse to surrender within the next seventy two hours, he will fire one of them at a random colony. If we hold out for ninety six hours, a second colony goes." Drawing a tense breath, she continued. "Should it take us five days, he claims to be prepared to release a form of biological warfare upon the Earth."

"Biological warfare…" Quatre whispered, his eyes wide with fear. "If they're threatening to release biological warfare in five days, that means…"

"That it's prepared partially, if not fully, now," Une concluded.

Trowa slightly raised his hand, signaling an intent to speak. "If they are, as they claim to be, doing this for the good of the future, them why would they blow up a colony or release a biohazard on the Earth?"

Une grimaced. "We don't know," she answered honestly. "Our undercover agent…"

"Also known as Zechs," interrupted the braided pilot.

"…has not yet been able to find any real rational explanation behind that threat. However, we all know that logic and reason are not always the basis of this sort of decision."

The room grew silent, all of them taking a moment to remember instances where reason had been overrun by passion and/or insanity. Three of their own had been at the helm of some of the most infamous of all time: Une targeting the colonies to get the Gundams, Quatre behind the controls of Wing Zero, and Zechs' legendary stint as the leader of the White Fang.

The pilots knew that, if this Malthis character did have a screw or two loose, and had that much power, they were in for a hell of a battle.

Trowa spoke again, asking, "So what, specifically, is the mission? I assume that, since a head on attack could provoke him to fire upon the colonies, we will be doing something more subversive?"

Une nodded. "We need to get at least three of you in there for the full plan to work. I will brief you all in the morning, after all of you have had your exams done."

"Exams?" Quatre asked. "What exams?"

"Medical exams," Une responded. "Any of you who manage to get in to their stronghold run the risk of being exposed to what they plan to release on the Earth if they get desperate. We have an experimental inoculation that should, in theory, protect against ninety percent of all known toxins and diseases known in biological warfare. The other ten percent have been deemed, unfortunately, completely impossible to withstand. With a single exception, the inoculation hasn't been used on humans yet, but if it's going to be handled by anyone, it will be you seven."

Yet again, Duo felt compelled to speak. "I take it that the only one who's tried it so far has been..."

"Yes, Maxwell, now shut up!" she snapped. Une glared at the young men in the room, knowing they were likely to argue with her next statement. "Every single one of you, between now and 1100 hours, is to get a full physical examination done before we even consider risking giving you such a concoction."

Just as anticipated, both Wufei and Heero put up resistance. "I am fine, woman," Wufei insisted. "I am more than healthy enough to handle whatever it is that you plan to give me, so you may disregard your doctors and their exams."

"No exceptions," Une said.

When Heero glared hard at her, Une glared just as hard back. "I will say this once. You get the exam, or you don't go on this mission. It is non negotiable, and that is the end of discussion." She closed the file in front of her and got to her feet. "I will send each of you a page when it is your turn in Exam Room C. You are to report there within five minutes of my sending for you. Noin, you are going first, so don't bother going to your room. You are to let me know as soon as you are done. Understood?"

Noin simply nodded, pretending that she didn't have an exploding headache at the moment. _Of all the times for me to catch a stupid cold, _she thought. _I'm going to end up kicked off of active duty and stuck on desk duty for this mission because I have the freaking sniffles!_

Near wordlessly, the seven Preventers filed out of the room. The only sound that could be heard was Duo, quietly asking Heero, "Why did we send a six foot one, platinum blonde haired, crystal blue eyed schizoid who's had his face all over the media as our under cover agent?"

Noin closed her eyes for a moment, suddenly remembering the day he was sent on his mission. It was a day she would never forget…


	3. Chapter 3

_Forty five days earlier…_

Noin tilted her neck to the side, trying desperately to work out a kink in her neck. With her right hand still massaging herself, she swiped her key card through the slot and entered her apartment. She didn't bother turning her lights on. Her quarters always had at least some light in them, and she had absolutely no desire to add to what there already was. It had been a long, long day.

Much like her duties when she was an OZ soldier, she was one of the top trainers for the Preventers. She had to mold the recruits, who were mostly awkward boys fresh out of high school, into professional agents. Needless to say, most of her days drove her insane. There were only a handful of young men who had the ability to rise to the occasion quickly, and all of them had been trained by someone else long before she ever had this job.

Some days, though, were worse than others, and this had been one of those days. It was the first day for this current batch, and she was more than ready to fill out reports on every single one of them. Usually, after the first week, Noin would pick out anyone who seemed to have the drive and the potential to make it in the program. If they were selected, they would receive basic training from a whole series of other agents, taking at least two years, before she would work with them again. Everyone else just got sent home with a report put in a permanent file describing exactly why they wouldn't cut it.

In the one day she had been working with this group, she was already fairly certain that not one was going to be recommended for the program.

They were terrible.

They were absolutely terrible.

And she had six more fifteen hour days with them.

She was in for a long week.

Noin listlessly kicked her bag underneath her bed, groaning as her neck kept agitating her. She was torn between flopping into her bed and letting her body give in to her exhaustion, and doing her full evening cool down to keep her from killing her neck further in the night. The trainer walked to her living room and began walking in circles, trying desperately to alleviate any of the tension in her neck. Her efforts, though, seemed to be to no avail.

It had been ten at night when she had reached her quarters, and by midnight, there had been very little improvement. Her stress level had not diminished at all, her tension was as high as ever, and the combination of those two factors were keeping her muscles tight and knotted up.

At half past midnight, there was a soft rapping on her front door. The young trainer rolled her eyes. There were only a handful of people in the world that would dare interrupt her in the middle of the night, only three or four that would knock first and call second, and only one that would do it quietly.

"Zechs, you have your own damn key. Let yourself in!" she called out, roughly attacking the knot in her neck again.

A few quick noises were heard before there was a very soft click, signifying the opening lock. Noin's eyes were closed as she listened to the near silent footfalls of her partner. "When the hell are you going to realize that the whole purpose of you having a key is so that you can come and go as you please?"

A soft shuffling was heard, and Noin knew that meant that he had brought another duffel bag's worth of stuff with him that evening. A small smile graced her lips as she tilted her head backwards, moaning as some of her tension lessened.

"I respect your privacy, Noin," his deep voice said.

Noin righted her head, lowered her hand, and looked him in the eye. "Zechs, you're going to have to get over this obsession with acting like an eternal outsider. You really don't have to knock every time you _come home!_"

Zechs smirked quickly before giving her a quick kiss. "This is still very new to me, Noin."

"Oh, right, because I got used to living together with you _years_ ago," she sarcastically replied. "You know, before you decided to move in me."

Zechs shifted the bag on his shoulder, still smirking at his partner. "There's no need to be unkind, Noin."

"Sure there is," she replied. "I get to harass you about this as long as you continue to move in one duffel bag at a time and insist on knocking before coming in." She hissed suddenly, grabbing at the side of her neck.

Zechs brushed Noin's hand away from her neck, leaning down to tenderly kiss it from behind. "I take it you had a long day," he whispered.

Noin smiled softly as his lips danced along her neck. "How could you tell?"

"Because," he whispered, brushing her hair aside, "you always get very, very tense right…" his tongue brushed along one small spot where her neck met her shoulder. He grinned as she shivered. "…here."

Noin felt her knees threatening to give out underneath her. "Mmmm…" she moaned, leaning to allow more access to the tall blonde. "Could you just do that for the rest of the night? I could really use it."

Zechs chuckled into her neck, stopping to nuzzle against it. "You're so spoiled," he said with a laugh, pulling back completely. He spun the strong woman around, smirking down at her. "You don't even care whether or not _I_ have any tension."

The trainer punched the ace pilot in the shoulder. "What the hell tension do you have?" she jokingly snapped. "You get to play with machines all day long, and I'm stuck with group after group of idiots making sure that they don't have access to _your_ toys!"

The blonde's smirk dropped for a moment, and a sad look washed over his graceful features for no more than a second. "I do more than just 'play with my toys', Noin, and while you have to deal with new recruits, I'm stuck with Maxwell all day long, six days a week."

The Italian laughed. "Fine, I'll give your shoulders a rub if you do the same for me."

"Fair enough," Zechs replied. "Do you wish to go first, or should I?"

Before the pilot could figure out what was going on, he found his legs being swept out from underneath him as he seemed to be falling into a kitchen chair. A rough hand on the back of his clothing jerked him around so that he landed in a seated position, and his jacket was swiftly torn from his shoulders.

"I'll do you first," the instructor whispered in his ear, standing right behind the chair. "That way, you can be nice and relaxed as you ease my muscles all night long."

Zechs closed his eyes and bit on to his tongue, fighting desperately to get rid of the image that had just popped into his head. Anything involving Noin and 'all night long' was almost more than the pilot could take. "That could be good," he hoarsely whispered. They were the only words that he could get out at the time.

Noin ran her slender fingers over his shoulders and down to his bicep. She gently began to dig her fingers into his flesh, and couldn't help the cat like grin on her features as she listened to him trying (and failing) not to moan. As she worked the tense muscles in his upper arms, she couldn't help but frown for a half a second. "You know," she casually said, sliding her fingers around, "this would probably be more effective if there wasn't so much here…"

The young man popped open one blue eye, half glaring at his love. "Not this again…"

"Seriously though, Zechs," Noin said, leaning in to hug him from behind, "what is up with this new muscle bound thing you're doing? This is a phase, right? I mean, you're going to eventually go back to the lean, mean, piloting machine that I first fell in love with, right?"

Zechs reached up with one hand and clasped it over Noin's. "You know, I'm not the only one to have been spending a lot of time in the gym. You've bulked up too, Noin."

The young woman let go of him and sharply smacked him on the shoulder. "First of all, I'm going to pretend that you did not just break rule number one of relationships, which states that never should a man insinuate that a woman in any way, shape, or form has gotten _bigger_. And secondly, while I may be a little more toned up than I was a couple years ago, you've gained at least twenty pounds in solid muscle!"

The blonde shifted uncomfortably in his seat, knowing that she was expecting an explanation for the chance. "It's not that much…" he started.

He didn't get to finish, though, before Noin was in the closet, pulling something out. "Exhibit A, in my right hand, is your jacket from last year. Exhibit B, in my left hand, is your jacket from six months ago." She tilted her chin to indicate her next direction. "And exhibit C, behind your chair, is your current jacket."

"Why do you have my old jackets?" Zechs asked, getting to his feet and praying it would change the subject.

"I felt like it," she sharply responded. "Now, if you will look at them, I think that it is fairly obvious that they are _not_ all the same size."

"But not by that much!" Zechs protested getting to his feet.

"Oh, really?" she shot back, tossing the first jacket at her love. "Put that on."

Zechs just held on to the coat in his hands, not knowing what to do next. He knew, just as well as she did, that there was no way he could possibly fit in to it. He had, in fact, been very deliberately gaining muscle mass over the course of the last few months. But he wasn't supposed to let her know why. "I don't know why you're pushing this so hard…"

"Because you're defensive!" Noin snapped back. "And you only get defensive when you are hiding something very, very big from me. You don't give a _damn_ about someone else's opinion. Now what the hell are you keeping from me?"

The seasoned pilot sat back down in the chair, resting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head. He was sick of keeping this from her. They had finally managed to get themselves into a stable relationship, and here he was, keeping something this big from her. He sighed, shaking his head. She was going to find out soon enough on her own. She might as well hear it from his lips.

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

Noin's blood turned to ice in her veins. Leaving? He was leaving her? Why? What could possibly be the reason could there be for her leaving her _again_?

"I don't have a choice," he went on, still unable to look at her. He couldn't believe that he was doing this to her, especially after all that they had been through.

"Don't…you don't have…what the hell do you mean you don't…" she stammered. She couldn't put the sentence together in her head or her mouth. It was just such a devastating blow to her heart that she couldn't even think straight.

Slowly, Zechs got to his feet and walked up to his love and grasped her hands. "Believe me, if there had been any other way…"

Suddenly, Noin's brain seemed to turn back on. She violently tore her hands from his and punched him squarely across the jaw. "You son of a bitch!" she hissed, pulling her fist back for another blow. "You God damned son of a bitch! After everything, _everything_ that I have done for you, after all of these years of standing by your side and defending you, even at your lowest points, you have the _audacity_ to tell me that you're walking out on me and that you have no choice?!?"

Zechs slowly brought his own hand to his cheek, stunned at her actions. He had done a lot of horrible, horrible things in his life, and she had stood by him all the while. She had loved him, supported him, and done everything in her power to help him see the right path. Never, _never_ had she lashed out at him before, and certainly never with her fists.

"Noin…" he stammered, still in a state of shock. "Noin…I…"

"Get out," she cried out. "If you're just going to leave me, then leave now. But don't you _dare_ come back here again. This is the last time you walk out on me…" she drew a long breath before hissing his name, "_Milliardo Peacecraft_."

The ace pilot felt like he had been hit again. She knew that he hated going by that name, that it brought out too many bad memories. She wouldn't have used it unless she was serious about never wanting to see him again.

Never in his life had Zechs felt this horrible about something he had done. He should have told her. He should have told her sooner. Hell, he should have told her as soon as _he_ had known about it. But he hadn't, because he had been under very specific orders to not tell anyone, especially Lucrezia Noin.

That order was about to fly out the window, though, and the hell with the consequences. "Une is sending me undercover," he quietly said. "I was informed of the possibility of this mission six months ago, and was sworn to absolute secrecy."

Noin felt herself recoil at those words. "Undercover?" she whispered. "There's something so big going on that we need to send a top agent undercover? And why the hell does it have to be you? Zechs, what the hell is going on here?"

The prince once again averted his gave from her. "There was…speculation that something might happen. I'm sorry, Noin, I cannot tell you what it is. Should it go as feared, Une will tell you. If not, I'll tell you everything as soon as I return. I promise."

The instructor slowly approached him, lifting his chin and making him look her in the eye. "So, you've been doing this to your body so that you'll be less recognizable," she realized out loud. "But your hair…"

"Goes in the morning," he replied, not bothering to hide his disappointment. "My hair will be cut and colored, my eye color will be altered with lenses, and Yuy is actually scheduled to break my nose first thing tomorrow and set it wrong." He paused, running a finger along her cheek. "When I come back, you won't know who I am."

Noin sat down on their couch, not sure how she would react. As his words finally and fully began to sink in, she drew a long and deep breath. She knew, as any other top level agent would, that not even family members were allowed to know when someone was about to go undercover. They would just be told that they were being temporarily relocated. An agent would have pre-taped and pre-written messages that would be systematically sent to their loved ones. Even if their family consisted of other agents, it was still entirely hidden.

That was why he hadn't told her anything. That was why he had been changing himself. That was why he had been so hesitant about moving all the way in to her apartment.

"You're..." she softly began, not sure where her words were going. "you're...going through a complete physical transformation...that's why you've been putting yourself through this, why you've been so quiet, why you've been dodging me ever time I asked about your almost insane workouts..."

Zechs honestly didn't know what to say next. What do you say to the woman you love when you're leaving and forming a new life, even if it is only temorary?

"Can I at least know what you'll vaguely look like when you come back?" Noin softly asked. "I mean, so I know who to kiss?"

Zechs knelt down in front of her, brushing his fingers along her cheek. "You're forgiving me?" he quietly asked.

Noin closed her eyes, nuzzling against his hand. "The fact that you told me at all, knowing full well what will happen to you if anyone finds out, tells me all I need to know. So, how will I know you when you get back?"

The ace pilot leaned in close, leaning his forehead against hers. "I'll be the one doing this," he whispered. He closed the gap between them, kissing her passionately. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck and tried to pull him even closer to her body.

"How long will you be gone?" she huskily whispered, pulling both of them to their feet.

Zechs shook his head, kissing her again. "I don't know," he honestly answered. "Une said that it could be up to a year, but I promise you, Noin, I will do everything in my power to get back as soon as I can."

"A year…" she whispered, looking away for a moment. She seemed to be thinking carefully about something before she brought her eyes back up, meeting his head on. "Then we need to make this last night together really count…"


	4. Chapter 4

Noin flipped through the magazine in her hands for what felt like the millionth time. This was not what she had in mind for the day. Sitting in a doctor's office, with nothing to entertain herself besides a tabloid magazine that was almost a year out of date, waiting well into the third hour for her results, was even worse than getting through that mountain of paper work she had sitting on her desk.

Being stuck in the waiting room was bad enough, but knowing that she was the only one _stuck_ was making it so much worse. All five Gundam pilots had come, gotten checked out, and gone. All five of them were told that their results would be called in, faxed in, or in some way presented to them at the location of their choosing. But oh, not Noin. Noin was told that she had to wait.

And Noin was sick of waiting.

With a sense of calmness that did not accurately reflect how she felt, Noin got to her feet and approached the reception window. "Excuse me," she calmly asked, "but do we know how much longer this is going to take?"

The nurse behind the window, a matronly woman with a thick gray braid in her hair, smiled sadly at the instructor. "I'm sorry, deary, but I don't know." She sighed to herself, pulling her thick rimmed glasses off her face. "They're not telling us anything right now, hon. In fact, almost everyone got booted out of the lab. Now, I'm not sure that it necessarily has anything to do with you or your test results. It could just be that there was some confusion and they kind of forgot about you. I hate saying that, because it makes our doctors sound so bad, but they do that from time to time. I'll never get used to it, though. Seems to me like there was a time when medicine meant doing what was best for the patient. You know, I knew doctors in my youth that would work for the simple satisfaction of being able to see their charge be healthy and smile. Oh, sure, they'd take home a pie or something if it was offered to them, but these were people who would go above and beyond. We don't get much of that now, though. No sir, not in this day and age. It's all about the money to these young bucks. That and prestige. They think being a doctor makes them so great and powerful. Well, they don't know what it means to be great. When I was a girl…"

_Holy crap, this is worse than waiting,_ Noin thought, groaning internally. She shook her head slightly as she let the woman ramble, wondering if there was any way to just sneak out now and apologize to Une later.

Fifteen agonizing minutes later, the nurse was called away, and thus stopped her story. Noin had never been so grateful in her life. Ten more seconds of listening to that and the pilot would have been reaching for her weapon.

Noin quickly scanned the area. No one was around. No orderlies, no nurses, no one else waiting to be examined. She was alone. A smile reached her lips as she made her way to the door. _The hell with it. They can call me if something's wrong. I'm getting the hell out of here!_

She had just gotten her hand on the exit button when she heard an angry throat being cleared behind her.

"Will you at least tell me why I'm being held hostage in this fluorescent hell?" Noin asked, annoyance dripping from her every word as she turned around to face her commander.

Une used one finger to indicate that Noin was to follow before she turned to walk down the hallway.

Noin, admittedly confused, kept her mouth shut and did as she was silently told. This was extremely odd behavior on Une's behalf, and Noin would have been lying if she had said that she wasn't at least a little concerned with what might be going on.

The two women wound through countless hallways, ignoring everyone they passed, until they reached Une's office. After they silently entered, Une closed and locked her office door before opening up a cabinet behind her desk and pulling out a plug.

"Security camera," she bluntly said, placing the chord on her desk.

Noin felt nauseas as she took her seat. Waiting in the doctor's office was unnerving but tolerable. Watching Une disable all security in a room before talking was downright frightening.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Noin placed her clasped hands on the desk before her. "Let's cut to the chase," she said, her voice betraying none of her uncertainty. "What went wrong with my examination?"

Une opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out. She closed her mouth, opened it again, seemed to roll her tongue around for a second, and once more closed it.

This did nothing to help Noin's nerves. "Commander Une," the Italian said, leaning forward, "I would like to know what was found during my examination."

Again, Une tried to reply, and again, Une did nothing.

Noin nearly vomited as her worry began to consume her. Something had clearly been found, and it had to be something bad. Even after her days as "Colonel Une", the commander of the Preventers never had a problem saying exactly what was on her mind, regardless of how the other person might react to it. Something that could make the most hardened woman on the planet too uncomfortable to talk had to be horrible.

The instructor could feel her skin grow clammy as she began thinking of everything that could have been wrong with her. She had been experiencing lower back pain over the course of the last few weeks, maybe her kidneys were failing. If it was severe enough, she would need a transplant, and that would permanently keep her off of active duty.

Or maybe she had a heart condition. She had been exhausted lately, and she had often felt like her heart was racing. Sure, she worked long hours at a high stress job, but she had never in her life felt this drained after a hard day's work. If she had a heart condition, she would definitely be taken off of the active duty roster, and possibly removed from duty altogether. She would have to start taking medication every day, she'd never get to fly again, and she would have to constantly be afraid of her heart just giving out on her.

Oh, God, what if it was a brain tumor? Her headaches had been constant and severe as of late, and she had been noticing her eyesight being slightly blurry. Those were symptoms of a brain tumor, weren't they? That would mean brain surgery and a lifetime of medication, and that was in a best case scenario. She might have to go through chemotherapy and radiation treatment for that. It would devastate her life. It would end her career, if not her life!

That thought was enough to push Noin over the edge. The hardened pilot lurched forward, grabbed a waste basked, and disposed of her last meal in it. For the first time in years, she felt like crying, even though she wasn't sure what was going on. This whole experience made her feel like she was about to break, and that sensation alone was too much for her to handle. Noin had been in countless dire situations where the outlook was grim, and she had always managed to remain composed and in control. But at that moment, Noin had lost her remarkable control.

Une sat in bewildered silence. She had been unsure of how this conversation was to take place, but it appeared that her subordinate wasn't in any condition to speak at the moment.

It was just as well. It gave the commander more time to figure out how to approach the subject at hand.

Several minutes passed before Noin had pulled herself back together and sat back up. "I'm sorry," she softly panted, wiping off her mouth. Her face was completely white when she looked up and made eye contact with the woman she had known for years.

"Une, what's wrong with me?"

Une's face was an unreadable mask as she folded her hands on her desk, just as Noin had done before.

"You're pregnant," she bluntly said.

Noin blinked in surprise, her mouth hanging wide open. "_That's_ what this is about?" she gawked. "_That's_ why you've been making me sweat it out? Because I'm pregnant?" A laugh came out of the instructor's mouth as she relaxed in her chair. "Shit, Une, I thought I was dying!"

Une smirked at her subordinate. Well, at least that part had gone better than anticipated. "I don't think I've ever heard you use such a vulgar expression before, Noin," she responded, clearly amused.

Noin chuckled again, shifting in her chair. She felt like the weight of the world was off her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Une, but I was expecting something terrible, not something wonderful."

"You are taking the news of your pregnancy surprisingly well," the commander commented, sliding her glasses on her face. "Were you already aware of it? Or at least, were you having suspicions?"

The instructor just smirked at her boss. "Look, honestly, I had no idea that I was pregnant," she admitted. "Maybe I've just been too busy to notice the symptoms, because I really didn't know. But this is amazing news, Une!"

The elder woman adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "Noin, I don't think you understand the severity of this situation."

Noin sat up in her chair, raising her eyebrow. "Severity of the situation?" she repeated. "I do understand, Une, that this means that I will not be one of the agents that is going to be sent undercover. I had figured out that I wasn't going during those hours I spent waiting for my results. I also understand that, for the next few months, I am going to be relieved of active duty."

Une's eyes were locked firmly on the younger woman. "Noin, I really don't think that you understand what this means."

Noin's smile faded from her face. Sure, there were a lot of issues that came with being pregnant, and she was sure that she would freak out about that later. But she knew that Une only cared about how it would affect her work performance, and Noin was fairly certain that she had already addressed those issues.

Again, Une adjusted her glasses. It appeared to her that she would, in fact, have to spell it out for the younger woman. "I am fairly certain that we all know who the father of your child is."

Noin glared at her superior. "What do you mean by 'we'?" she demanded.

"It was a figure of speech," Une responded. "I switched the names on some of the blood samples, so even the doctors don't know that you're pregnant." She sighed as she shifted her legs underneath her desk. "But we both know about the _status_ of your unborn child's father, Noin."

The younger woman felt her heart drop down into her stomach as those words began to take affect. "I can't tell Zechs," she realized out loud. Noin drew in a deep breath and mirrored Une's position, placing her clasped hands back on the surface of the desk as she sat up in the chair. "I understand, ma'am, that it means that I will be going through the beginning of this pregnancy without the aid of my partner. I understand that it is impossible for me to communicate with the man that I love. I understand…wait, if you switched the blood samples, who do they think is pregnant?"

"That's not important," Une stated. "And I still don't think that you fully get it."

Noin was beginning to grow frustrated. "Then what is the situation, Une?" she demanded. "What is so horrible that has you telling me about this in a completely secure environment?"

"You're going underground," Une bluntly stated.

The instructor slumped down her chair, choking slightly on her own saliva. "What the hell are you talking about?" she spit out.

Une maintained her no-nonsense visage. "There is too much at risk right now, Noin," she responded. "General Malthis poses an enormous threat to not just our organization, but to humanity as a whole. There is just too much on the line to have any sort of security risk."

"What security risk is this?" Noin yelled back, indicating her still smooth belly.

"Everyone in the world knows that you are the paramour of the infamous Zechs Merquise," Une bluntly replied. "If it were to get out that you, Noin, were pregnant, the consequences could be dire. You and I both know that you are a prominent enough figure that it would be reported by someone, somewhere, in some capacity. We also both know that in spite of being undercover, Zechs is likely doing everything in his power to check up on you." When it looked like she was going to be interrupted by the other woman, Une held up her hand to stop her.

"Remember, Noin, I have known Zechs as long as you have, and I am more than aware of his obsessive personality." Une once again pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She was really remembering why she had permanently switched to contacts. "If so much as one article slips out about your pregnancy, he would be aware of it, and it could compromise his position. Worse yet, if his identity is discovered, you and your child would be at risk."

Much to her chagrin, Noin could not argue that. "I…I understand that we cannot let this news out for anyone outside of the organization," she hesitantly began, "but is going underground really necessary? If I go missing, someone is sure to begin asking questions. Surely, ma'am, there must be another option available."

"Of course there is," the elder woman calmly replied. "You could get rid of it."

Noin's blood ran cold in her veins. Get rid of it…getting rid of her child? She could never do something like that. That certainly was _not_ an option. Sure, it would remove a huge element of risk in the mission, and it would keep her from having to be removed from active duty. But just because getting rid of it would make everyone's life easier didn't mean she would ever do something like that.

Would she?

"No," she hissed. "No, I won't do it."

Une simply nodded. She had known Noin long enough to know that the woman would never even consider that option. "Then I'm afraid we have no choice but to hide you away."

Noin nodded in return. "What needs to happen?" she asked, somehow managing to keep her swirling emotions in check.

"Malthis is going to be told what he wants to hear: that the Preventers is disbanding. We will tell him that, due to the size of the organization, it will take at least two weeks for there to be a full and proper transition of power without the risk of civil war."

The younger woman wasn't sure what this had to do with her situation, but she knew better than to interrupt.

"During that time," Une went on, "we will be sending in our three agents."

"Who…"

"Yuy, Chang, and Barton," Une answered, not needing to hear the rest of the question.

Noin nodded along, having already assumed that those were the three that would be going. Quatre was too famous and too prominent to go, and Duo…well, Duo might be an expert at sneaking in, but that man just could not shut up if he started actually talking to someone. Sure, he would never say anything that would compromise the mission, but Noin would not be surprised if he annoyed at least one person into trying to kill him.

"Anyway," Une went on, trying to regain Noin's focus, "we will be relieving the bulk of our agents at the end of the week. They will all be debriefed, and we will be keeping very close tabs on all of them. While the 'power transfer' is going on, one of our agents will be slightly disabling the communication devices that his forces are using. Not entirely destroying them, because that would draw too much attention, but enough to keep them from being able to make a newscast."

Again, all Noin could do was nod.

Une continued. "We will have this two week window to disassemble their major weapons and plant our own counterattack," she said. "This should be more than enough time to crush their inner circle of power. As soon as that goes down, the six other pilots will be suited up their Gundams and will crush any other resistance that comes at us."

The Italian noticeably relaxed in her chair. "So, ultimately, I go underground for two weeks as we do this, but then we can revert back to what we are doing now."

"In theory," Une clarified. "Assuming that everything goes according to plan, then yes, Malthis' forces will be subdued and the Preventers will be reinstated without the public being any bit the wiser. However, there is a chance that you will not be in the clear."

Noin wasn't sure she understood, and she made that clear to her superior.

"If Malthis, himself, is not brought in," Une went on, "then Zechs is to stay with him as a 'loyal' subordinate." The commander quickly cleared her throat. "His is to stay attached to Malthis until we bring him in, no matter how long that takes. And until that is, we cannot risk him being aware of this child."

So, just as Zechs was meant to disappear from her life without her knowledge, Noin would disappear from his. The younger woman smiled as the irony of the situation settled in. "Zechs is going to have no idea that I'm disappearing, will he?"

"Neither will the other pilots," Une added. "I don't trust any of them to not tell him." The elder woman shook her head, slightly disgusted. "Those five would feel 'bound' to do the 'right' thing and make sure that Zechs was in on it."

The younger woman laughed lightly, knowing that Une was right. "That is true," she chuckled.

Une smiled back, extending a hand at her long time associate. "Congratulations, Lucrezia," she sincerely said. "You're going to be a mother."

"Thank you," the younger woman said, shaking her boss' hand.

"I will assist you in any way that I can," Une assured. "But you know what needs to be done."

Noin just nodded, yet again. "All right," she said, exhaling a breath she wasn't aware she was holding. "Tell me how I disappear."


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: A thousand apologies for the unbelievable amount of time that has passed between chapters! I had issues at the beginning of this chapter, and then, to be honest, I forgot about _all_ of my stories over the holidays. I'll try really hard to make sure that I don't have another lapse this severe! Oh, and thank you for your support! It really means a lot to me!

/\/\/\

If he had been asked two months earlier what the worst part of undercover work was, Zechs would have probably guessed that it was the complete physical transformation you had to go through. The agonizing workouts he had to go through to keep up his new physique were brutal, but they were nothing compared to the pain of loss he had felt when his platinum hair had be shorn and made auburn. Not to mention, of course, that disturbingly satisfied look Heero gave him right after the 'nose job'.

Boy, had he been wrong. After two months, he was certain that the worst part of being undercover was adapting to a new personality. He had never been a social creature, nor had he ever wanted to be. But if the mission were to succeed, Zechs needed to become 'comrades' with the others in the organization, and that required more social interaction than he had ever done in his life.

And going from the eternally cool, level, and dangerous Lightning Count to the slightly nervous, occasionally stressed out engineer known as Robert Teran was hurting his pride a little more each day.

Zechs sipped on his coffee as he looked through the stack of papers before him. He had never been much of a coffee drinker before the mission, and he had sworn to himself that as soon as the mission ended, he would never drink another cup. No one in OZ had ever felt the need to pressure him into having any, but ever since he had arrived at his new location, with no reputation to speak of and not wanting to draw the wrong kind of attention to himself, he had ended up doing what was apparently the only male bonding thing that anyone did in this organization: have a cup of coffee.

It had been two days since the demand for the Preventers disentigration, and Zechs was looking for any new news he could use. His mission was to stay near General Malthis until the bitter end, and after a little less than two months, he'd be lying if he said he hadn't been tempted to just put a bullet in the back of Malthis' head and call it a day. Being undercover was certainly not something he had ever wanted to participate in.

The former OZ soldier sighed as he brushed his auburn bangs out of his eyes. He knew that someone was coming up behind him, but since no normal man would have been able to tell, he didn't turn to look.

"How's it going, Teran?" a brunette soldier asked, sitting across the table from his co-worker.

Zechs blinked his now green eyes, pretending to be slightly startled. "Matthews," he said, his voice sounding higher than it naturally was, "why do you always have to sneak up on me?"

Matthews shrugged, a smile on his face. "What can I say? I'm good at sneaking up on people!"

_I know a loud mouthed eternal adolescent who's quieter than you are,_ he thought, just offering his coworker a simple smile. "I guess that's why I spend more time fixing mobile suits than being in them," he offered.

"I guess," Matthews laughed. "Still, you seem to have good instincts, Teran. I think, if you actually went through the training program Malthis is offering, you could be one of the best we've got."

Zechs shrugged his shoulders. "I've only ever had the most basic levels of training," he said, looking back down on his papers. "Mostly so that I could better understand the machines that I was working on. I'm not sure that I'm really piloting material."

"Nonsense," Matthews said, slapping the 'mechanic' on the shoulder. "Trust me, I'm the best damn pilot in this facility. With my help, I think you could go all the way!"

Zechs had to keep his face down for a moment, making sure he kept his actual thoughts to himself. "Maybe someday," he finally said. "But right now, I have to keep looking through these maintenance reports."

Matthews took a good long drink from his own mug. "Yeah, they'd probably never let me take you away from that crew anyway," he finally admitted. "I mean, we all know that you're the best damn mechanic we've got. I swear, you take so much care of our suits, you'd think you were taking care of a kid. Malthis would never let me steal you away for training." He sighed, shaking his head. "Crying shame, though. I really think you could have kicked ass."

The former blonde put up the best damn smile he could muster at the moment. "Thanks, Matthews," he said. "It's nice to have that kind of support from a pilot of you caliber."

True enough, Kalvin Matthews was an exceedingly gifted pilot. Had he been given the proper training in his youth, he might actually have presented a halfway decent challenge to the Gundams. But there were a lot of the finer points of being a soldier that seemed to have been skipped in his training. At the age of 23, he was already too well trained to learn it all over again. At least, not without spending years undoing all of he previous training.

Matthews didn't come off as a soldier when you met him. Sure, he was tall and well built, but he was just so friendly and eager that he always seemed like he could never actually kill anyone in battle. In several ways, Matthews reminded Zechs of a significantly calmer version of Duo Maxwell.

"Hey, no problem!" the younger man finally said. "We all gotta stick together if we're actually going to be able to pull this off! Besides, I know exactly what kind of skill level you're at. I was in charge of your background check, remember?"

"Of course," Zechs replied.

"By the way, thanks for not holding that against me," Matthews said sincerely. "Most guys who find out who ran their check always act strange and angry when they get near them. Thanks for not being that guy."

This was the gateway moment Zechs had been waiting weeks for. Another member of the organization, and a high ranking one at that, had gotten close enough to him to talk about the mission. "So," Zechs casually began, "how exactly did an ace pilot like you find out about this operation? From what I hear, you used to be one of the best pilots that survived the war. Did you find them, or did they find you?"

"A little of both," the other pilot shrugged, taking a sip from his coffee. "But I guess, when you really think about it, they found me. After the war, everyone got back to their normal lives. About three weeks later, I realized that I really didn't have any kind of life to be getting back _to_. I started looking around for something, _anything_, that I could do with the skills I had. For the longest time, I couldn't find anything. It drove me crazy. The only thing I had ever been trained to do in my life was piloting mobile suits. There seriously wasn't anything else that I knew how to do. And because of that, I couldn't get a job _anywhere._"

Zechs nodded slowly. He had heard this story hundreds of times already. There were countless young men out there, mostly around his own age, that had been raised strictly in an era of war and taught only the skills they would need in order to survive. When the war ended, and civilian jobs were the only ones available, they found that they couldn't hold their own in any of the available fields of work. It was unfortunate, but a lot of men who had planned on being career soldiers were currently jobless, if not homeless, as result of the war's end.

"After a couple years," Matthews went on, "I found myself drinking pretty heavily and not even trying to find work. I couldn't see the point. Any job that would pay enough to actually make ends meet required training I didn't have, and the training required money that I didn't have."

_Another tragedy of war_, Zechs solemnly thought.

Matthews stared deep within his cup. "I was destroying my life," he said, his voice practically a whisper. "I was destroying my life, and I didn't even care. But someone else did."

Zechs gave the younger pilot a sideways glance. "Who?" he asked.

"Malthis," Matthews said. "I didn't know who he was at the time. I'd never even heard of him. As far as I knew, he was just another lost soldier who went to the bar every night to forget his sorrows. I was so consumed by my own troubles that I never noticed that he always had one glass of rye, and then nothing but water for the rest of the night. All I knew was that after seeing him in there for about a month, he came up to me and told me that he might have a job opportunity for me.

"I couldn't believe it when he told me that. Two years I had been looking for work with no success, and suddenly I get a job offer when I'm halfway drunk in a bar full of old soldiers. Seems old Malthis had been in that bar every night for a month, learning the stories of all the ex-soldiers and then running background checks on them to find out if he thought they were good enough." Matthews flashed his companion a smile. "Apparently, I was that good!"

"You must have had an exceedingly impressive record," Zechs replied with a smile. "Though I don't know why I would be surprised by that. You are quite well known as one of, if not the, best pilot here." _God, these people must not have high standards…_

Matthews shrugged again. "I fought in three major battles in the war, survived all three, and had eighteen confirmed kills in combat. Apparently that put me head and shoulders ahead of most of the other pilots that Malthis looked at." He took another drink from his brew. "After I got over my hangover the next day, I followed the instructions on the back of the card he had given me. I was brought to a facility and given some tests that brought back memories of my military training. After a week or so, Malthis told me personally that if I could sober up, he would hire me, and the salary he offered me was _three times_ what I used to make in the military."

Zechs smiled at him. "That sounds like a damn good record to me," he said in a surprisingly supportive tone. "I heard that a lot of soldiers that survived that many battles only pulled it off because they stayed in the back of the fray."

"Yeah," Matthews agreed. "I fought with some of them. Those are the guys you don't want on your side. You get the feeling that they would use you as a human shield at the first sign of real danger."

"Ever fight a Gundam?" Zechs challenged.

Matthews only laughed. "God, no. When you fight a Gundam, you fight your last fight. Everyone knows that. I'm good, but I'm not immortal!"

Zechs laughed. "I suppose you're right," he agreed. "That was the scuttlebutt we engineers heard, at least. I just didn't know if it was true or not."

"Oh, it was," the other pilot confirmed. "Trust me. If I had actually fought a Gundam, you'd still be sitting here alone."

The former blonde nodded. "So, what made you join up?" he asked his colleague. "Did you actually agree with his politics, or was it really just a job? Not that I care either way…"

"At first it was just for the money," Matthews admitted. "It was a job, it had excellent pay, and after two years of using residual checks to drink myself stupid, a little stability was just the thing I needed and didn't care what it took to get it. After a few months working as a test pilot, I was offered a chance to actually have dinner with Malthis. That was the first time he talked to me about the mission. The first time politics was brought up to me. The first time I had my eyes opened to what the real world was like."

Zechs leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. He knew better than to say anything at the moment.

"He told me everything," Matthews said, his voice suddenly barely higher than a whisper. "He told me about power, about who had it and who needed to have it. He told me about the Preventers, and how they use their elitist backgrounds to make rules for everyone else that don't apply to themselves. He told me all about their plans to take over the world the same was that OZ tried to. He even showed me proof that their top agents _all _used to work for OZ!"

"All of them?" Zechs asked.

"Yeah!" Matthews confirmed. "And the head of Preventers is actually Colonel Une of OZ! She was Treize Kushrenada's right hand man, you know? I even heard some guys referring to her as the angel of death. She did _anything_ her boss told her to, and killed _anyone_ that got in her way!"

_That sounds unfortunately accurate…_

"He showed me how they were using their power to keep guys like me down," he went on, the anger more than evident in his voice. "All of their cuts to military programs that forced hundreds of thousands of us out of our jobs. Blocks and restraints on anyone trying to design new things that could be used as weapons in a future war. Keeping tabs on everyone who they thought could even _possibly_ be a threat. They have the power, Teran, and they're keeping it for themselves. We can't have a large military, but they can have their own private army. We can't engineer new ideas that could save our asses in the future, but they have _government funding_ to have a whole _department_ to do just that! If we were caught listening in on someone else's conversations, we'd be accused of treason. But when they do it, it's to keep us 'safe'."

Again, Zechs nodded quietly and kept his eyes locked on the other man.

Matthews realized his hands were shaking slightly, and he put down his mug. "Sorry about that," he sincerely apologized. "I just get worked up sometimes when I think about it. It just seems so damn wrong that one organization has the right to tell the rest of the world how to live, especially when they refuse to follow the rules themselves."

Zech smiled at the other man. "Don't worry about it," he responded. "I assumed that you had very strong feelings about what we were doing here. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't still be with the group, would you?"

Matthews couldn't help but agree. In the last month, Malthis had terminated anyone who he had even suspected as not being loyal to his cause. There were only about a thousand of them left.

"Oh, that reminds me!" the brunette suddenly said, a smile back on his face, "I was supposed to deliver this to you. Sorry, I guess I forgot after we started talking."

"It happens," Zechs replied with a smile. "What do you have?"

"Three newbies," Matthews said, putting three folders on the table. "They're young, but they're really talented. Malthis just approved them for the mission, and he wanted me to hand a copy of their profiles off to you. You are the current head of our engineering department, after all. You need to know the staff as much as I do. Besides, two of them are going to be working for you anyway."

An annoying beeping sound was heard, and Matthews looked at his watch. "Damn, I have to get back to work. Listen, it was great talking to you again, and be sure to get through those profiles. These kids are going to be here in just a couple of ours."

"Will do," Zechs affirmed. "Have fun."

Matthews just flashed him a smile before jogging down the hall, leaving Zechs with the profiles. The former blonde couldn't help the faint smile that crossed his features as he pulled open each folder. There, sitting on top of each set of extensive paper work, were the new security badges for Heero, Trowa, and Wufei.

His mission was almost over.

/\/\/\

Author's Note: Hey, I had to bring him into the story at some point, and now seemed like a good time to do it. Again, I apologize for the delay, and will try my best not to let another lapse like this one occur.

Thank you!


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Notes: Okay, two things. One, I just reread the last chapter, and I am appalled at the number of mistakes that I made and somehow didn't manage to catch. I'm going to go back and fix that.

And secondly, I am sorry hat it has taken so long to get this up. Let's just say that I don't like mice anymore…

Okay, announcements over. Time for what you actually came for: the story!

/\/\/\

It was wrong. It was all so very wrong. Nothing had gone according to plan. The people weren't where they were supposed to be, they didn't react the way they were meant to react, and the situation was so far beyond their control that it was downright terrifying.

Yuy, Chang, and Barton had all arrived right when they were meant to, but everything went wrong from there. The doctor who was meant to meet Wufei upon his arrival was nowhere to be seen, so Zechs had ended up intercepting all three of them. And instead of taking them straight to their quarters, the four pilots had found themselves in lockdown in an elevator.

Heero had tried to get them out, but it appeared that there was no emergency exit from Malthis' elevators. In fact, there wasn't even a spot for an override key inside the thing. They had no tools with them, and no means of leaving the confines of their metal box. It was not a scenario they had counted on.

Over Zech's radio, the four men listened intently as they found out what had happened. The head doctor was not, in fact, loyal to Malthis. He was actually a former army doctor who had found out about Malthis' plans and had decided to try to take it down from the inside. It was he who had designed the units of biological warfare that Malthis was so proud of.

It was he who had triggered them to go off within Malthis' facilities on the eve of conflict.

In an attempt to spare the world from another disastrous war, the old doctor had done what he saw as the only way to stop an insurgent uprising. It was a shame that he was unaware of the four young men who had come to save them all.

On the radio, Heero, Wufei, Trowa, and Zechs listened to the chaos that was being spread through the rest of the facility. Men screamed as the first stages of symptoms began to erupt all over their bodies. Gunfire went off, probably in an attempt to stop the man who had released the plague upon them. Shouts and commands were cried out by panicked soldiers as they tried to fight an enemy they could not see.

"I'd hate to state the obvious here," Trowa said after a few minutes, "but we need to get out of here, and fast."

"No shit," Heero muttered, surveying his surroundings.

Wufei smirked at his comrade. "You've been spending too much time with Maxwell."

Heero took only a second to glare and his Chinese ally, but he didn't feel like wasting time with a comeback. "There's no hatch for us to climb through," he stated.

"Oh, good, I'm not the only one stating the obvious today," Trowa responded.

Again, Heero only spared a second to glare at his comrade. "Even if we manage to pry the doors open, there's going to be a solid wall behind them. We won't be able to climb out of that." Taking another survey of what they had, he turned to Zechs. "Do you know of any way to override this contraption?"

"There is a switch on the top of the unit," the ex-blonde replied. "It should be only an inch and a half back from the center mark of the elevator doors. Perhaps if we get the doors open, one of us might be able to get our fingers far enough up there to trigger it."

Without another word being spoken, the four pilots went to work, managing to use what little they had to pry the metal doors open. There was a small amount of space available between the elevator and the shaft, but it was barely an inch wide.

"Trowa," Heero commanded, "get on my shoulders so you can reach it."

As the acrobat hopped up, Zechs rolled his eyes. "Heero, this isn't going to…"

Yet another glare from the Japanese pilot convinced Zechs that, regardless of what he had to say, the younger man was not about to listen to him. "Fine," the eldest pilot said. "You'll find out soon enough."

Two minutes passed before Trowa shook his head. "I can't reach it," he stated, his voice completely neutral. "I can touch the base that the switch is attached to, but my fingers aren't long enough to reach the actual switch."

"We need to fashion a device, then," Wufei commanded. "Perhaps we could use the laces of our shoes to hook around the device…"

"There would be no way to aim it," Heero interrupted. "Without visual confirmation, we will not be able to determine the difference between that switch and any of a dozen nuts and bolts up there. I propose we find some sort of hook…"

"We shouldn't even need that," Trowa butted it. "If we could just find something thin enough and sturdy enough, I'm sure that I could maneuver it and…"

"All three of you are fools," Zechs finally shouted at them.

The three Gundam pilots stopped their debate and blinked at the larger man. Loud outbursts were not his style, and it had caught them more than a little off guard. Heero was the first to regain his composure. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You don't need any device to get it," he calmly stated, holding up his hand. "You need longer fingers."

As Heero and Wufei glared at their older counterpart, Trowa didn't waste any time locking his hands together and standing in a lunge near the door. "Come on," he calmly said.

Zechs stepped up onto the open hands, not needing as much of a boost to get him to the top of the box, reaching his long, slender fingers in the tiny space. It took a few seconds for him to find the device he was looking for, and he was just barely able to flick the switch.

He hissed as the elevator began moving down the shaft. His finger was still wedged between the metal box and the solid wall when it made its initial jerk, and when he pulled his fingers back inside, they were coated in his blood. All that was left to the top of his left hand fingers seemed to be bone. He stepped down from Trowa's hands as the younger man let out a gentle cough.

"Well, that was unpleasant," he muttered, tearing off the base of his shirt to form a makeshift bandage. He glanced at the three younger pilots as he bound his wounds. "As I would rather not repeat that, we will wait for us to arrive at the bottom floor. From there, we should easily be able to get through the doors. I suggest we spend this minute forming a plan for what to do as soon as we are free of this retched box."

Heero crossed his arms over his chest. "The biological warfare has been released inside the facility by a doctor who wanted to stop the operation," he recapped. "If he was smart, and given his level of infiltration I would wager that he is, he likely sealed off all exterior vents to keep his weapon from spreading to the public. If that is the case, then we are relying strictly on a re-circulated air system. This means that the spread of his weapon will be extremely swift. We will not have much time to get out of here."

"And the mission?" Wufei asked.

"Over" Trowa stated. "Our job was to neutralize and take down Malthis' army, and that has been done. We need only concern ourselves with getting out now."

Zechs glanced toward the doorway, finishing the bandage on his hand. "Your mission is over," he replied. "Mine is not. My mission does not end until I bring in Malthis himself. When we are free of the elevator, the three of you are to leave. Clear yourselves of the area. I will not be going with you."

"That madman is as good as dead," Wufei shot back. "Don't endanger your life for a task that cannot be accomplished."

"We don't know Malthis' state," Heero pointed out. "For all we know, he has already escaped. If Zechs has been charged with bringing him in, then he cannot run on the assumption that he has been 'taken care of'." He turned to the tallest man, a serious look on his face. "Would you require backup assistance on this mission?"

"Negative," the former blonde replied. "Clear yourselves of the area, and report all that you know to Une as soon as you can. That will serve us all better in the long run."

The elevator stopped suddenly, its destination reached. Trowa and Zechs applied pressure at the top of the doors as Heero and Wufei did the same on the lower portion, and the doors were quickly opened.

"The stairs are down the hall and to the left. On the third floor is the mobile suit hangar. That will probably be your best bet," Zechs said, glancing around the area for prospective enemies. "There's a giant sign next to it. Even my sister couldn't miss it."

Heero smirked at the comment. He, too, was familiar with how oblivious Relena could be from time to time. "Understood."

Trowa felt an odd sensation and looked down at his arm. Tentatively, he pulled back his long sleeve. "Well, that can't be good," he calmly stated.

The other three turned toward him, and they all felt their blood run cold as they looked at the bared appendage. The arm was red and splotchy, and there were several areas that appeared to have sores forming on them.

Quickly, they all rolled up their sleeves looking for signs of infection. They all managed to keep their relief at finding pristine skin well hidden. The ever stoic Trowa simply rolled his sleeve back down. "It would appear that the vaccine was not entirely effective with me."

"Get him out of here," Zechs firmly commanded. "Contact Une, let her know that he has been infected, and make sure that Sally Po is on standby when you arrive." He gave the green eyed pilot as sympathetic a look as he could. "Best of luck to you."

Heero gave his tall counterpart an unreadable look. "Zechs," he said, more of a statement than anything else. When the taller man raised an auburn eyebrow, Heero smirked up at him. "Love the nose job."

Even Zechs could not completely repress his chuckle at the statement. Of all the top agents, only Maxwell usually found time to make smart assed comments during times of danger. That comment was only further proof that the partners had been spending far too much time together.

Giving the area one last scan, the group disbanded. Heero and Wufei helped get Trowa to the hangar, and Zechs began to wind his way through the halls, looking for signs of his target. If Malthis was still inside, and alive, he had to be found quickly.

It was all so very wrong.

…

Une gently placed her phone down and sat down in her chair. The report had managed to shake even her nerves a bit. The weapons of biological warfare were not only complete, but had been released inside Malthis' facility. His entire army, as well as her agents, had been well exposed to it. One of her agents was showing quickly worsening signs of contamination, and was in danger of dying before he even made it back to the base. Another agent had stayed inside, determined to finish the mission he had been given.

An agent that had no idea that he was going to be a father.

The tall woman pinched the bridge of her nose. This was not at all what she had intended when she had formed the mission in the first place. There wasn't supposed to be biological warfare. There wasn't supposed to be risk to contamination so something they didn't know if they could fight. And there certainly wasn't supposed to be someone pregnant without their partner knowing about it.

With a completely sturdy hand, she picked up the phone and contacted Sally. As soon as the doctor had been informed of the situation, Une reached under her desk and pulled out a rarely seen flask with a beautiful insignia printed on it. It had once belonged to her beloved Treize, and it was only used by him in moments when he doubted the success of his plans. In all the years that she had been attached to him, she had only ever seen him use it twice.

As she took one firm gulp, she realized that both times had somehow involved Zechs Merquise.

"I guess Noin was right," she muttered to herself, capping off the flask and hiding it again. "That man really can drive anyone to drinking."

In one very swift motion, she picked up the phone to contact the former Lieutenant. With her fingers hovering above the dial, she found herself hesitating. As a woman, she felt obligated to let Noin know of the situation that her lover was in.

As a leader, though, she knew that the status of her agent should not be known to any more than absolutely necessary. With a heavy heart, she placed the phone back down on the receiver. Noin would find out when the mission was over. Not a moment sooner.

…

Noin played with the end of her braid as she sat down on her new couch in her knew apartment. When Une relocated you, she _really_ relocated you. The soldier had been moved from her on base apartment halfway across the world. She had been given a completely new life, and a new look to go with it. What little hair she had was dyed a rich brown, and she had been equipped with extensions that made her hair reach her waist. Her violet eyes had been covered with lenses, giving them the same chocolaty look that her hair had. She had been given a wardrobe full of dresses, skirts, and other feminine attire that a soldier like herself rarely wore.

It had yet to be a full week, but Noin was doing everything she could to fall into the role she had been given. She had been provided with everything she would need to make her story viable. She had her new ID, as well as a copy of 'her' marriage certificate and her 'late husband's' death certificate.

Her story was simple. She was a young woman who had been happily married, but her husband, an engineer, had died in a well known plane crash that had happened approximately four weeks earlier. She had recently discovered that she was carrying her late husband's child, and asked for peace and privacy as she came to terms with her new situation.

As far as Noin was concerned, there was no point in getting too attached to the neighbors. After all, 'Claudia Thomas' was going to be 'moving' fairly soon.

"This sucks," she grumbled to herself. She was well provided for by Une. In fact, the elder woman had even gone so far as to hand pick Noin's doctor for the duration. And with her current setup, Noin was still able to maintain a remote work station and get things accomplished from her apartment.

But it wasn't the same. She was a field officer. She was meant for action, for combat. When she had joined the armed forces in her youth, it had never dawned on her that she would spend almost a year confined to desk duty. And worst of all, even when her little stint underground was over, she _still_ was going to be kept off the line.

The tall woman looked down at her still smooth belly. "You better be damn good," she told her unborn child. "And if you ever find out what Mommy had to give up for you, you better be damn grateful."

With a tired sigh, she turned her computer on and eagerly checked to see if she had any messages from Une. The operation was supposed to begin that day, and within forty eight hours, everything was supposed to be taken care of. There was a small, childish part of her that was hoping that there would already be something waiting for her, telling her that the mission was over, that everything was fine, and that she had a reservation on the next available flight to go home.

Noin was not at all surprised to find no such word. She sighed again and pulled out a file that she needed to get work done on. Pausing for a moment, she once again looked down toward her belly.

"Don't worry, kiddo," she whispered. "By tomorrow, Mommy and Daddy will be back together, and everything is going to be great. Just you wait, Baby. One more day is all I ask." She gently rubbed her stomach, a wistful look in her eye.

"Just one more day…"

/\/\/\

Author's Notes: Well, I couldn't make it _easy_ on them, now, could I? Please let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in the update! I kept saying, "I'll update by the end of the week," and the next thing I knew, it had been a month! Mea culpa!

/\/\/\

Zechs ran down the corridor, trying to find any clues pointing him to Malthis' whereabouts. It was difficult, though, when confronted by hysterical dying men all around him. Whatever the bug was, it was spreading quickly and brutally. In the half hour it had been since the lockdown had begun, most of the exposed soldiers were covered in sores and vomiting blood. Several were already dead.

Just as suspected, the lockdown had been total. Hazard alarms were blaring loudly. The facility was functioning strictly on the backup generators to avoid the risk of system overloads from an outside source. Yellow lights cast an eerie glow inside the blood stained halls, and men clawed at doors as they tried to escape.

For a moment, Zechs wondered how the three Gundam pilots would get out, but he shook it off. That was not his mission. Besides, Heero Yuy could never be held for long. That boy would figure something out.

An infected soldier lunged out of a corridor and latched on to Zechs' pant leg. The man looked desperate for help. Blood trailed from his cracked lips, and his face and hands, the only visible parts of his body, were covered with disgusting open sores.

"Help me," the man croaked out.

It was a pitiful sound. The man's voice was barely audible, and it was hoarse and broken. His lips had barely moved as he whispered his plea, his strength too far gone to even properly speak. Zechs put his good hand on the man's shoulder, and the man smiled at him. It was his last action before the former blonde slammed an elbow into the man's head, killing him instantly.

It was the most merciful thing that could have been done.

Zechs took the dead soldier's gun and continued on his quest. He covered the base, one floor at a time, until he reached the main hangar. Several ships and mobile suits had been moved around by soldiers desperate for escape, but none of them had succeeded. Scanning the area, he noticed that one mobile suit was still activated.

"Teran?!?" a voice called over a speaker. Zechs looked toward the cockpit of the mobile suit, recognizing the voice instantly.

"Matthews, is that you?" he hollered back. He already knew the answer, but he had to maintain his character, even in such a crucial moment.

A blinking light from the chest cavity of the machine affirmed that. "Are you okay?" the soldier asked.

Zechs paused for a moment before answering. Thanks to the vaccine that he had received, he was perfectly fine. A little stressed at the moment, but hardly dying. However, there was no reason for him to be standing out there, completely exposed to the bug and to be suffering no ill effects at all. When the other man asked again, all Zechs could say was, "I think I'm okay…"

Teran let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God!" he said. "Quick, get in a mobile suit and come with me!"

The taller man shook his head. "What about Malthis?" he shouted back. He hated the yelling, but with alarms screaming all around, it was his only option. "We can't just abandon him here!"

"We're not!" Teran responded. "He's in my cargo hold right now!"

Zechs blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Look, Teran, we don't have time to talk about this right now. Just get in the damn machine and follow me."

The imposter engineer couldn't argue with that logic. Without missing another beat, he scurried up to the cockpit of the nearest mobile suit and climbed in. It had taken remarkable concentration for him to not effortlessly slide in, but he could not forget that he was supposed to be a fairly inexperienced pilot.

Once inside, Zechs turned on his communication system. "What's going on?" he asked his counterpart.

On his side, Matthews sighed. "I wish I had an answer for that," he said, defeat in his voice. "Malthis asked me to meet him in the hangar because he wanted to do a personal inspection of the new weapon system that you installed in this suit, and he wanted me to demonstrate. I had suggested that you be here, too. I mean, you did create the damn thing." He paused for a moment, chuckling to himself. "Too bad you had to go baby-sit the newbies instead of being here."

Matthews paused for a moment. "What happened to the new recruits?" he asked. "You were with them when you started, weren't you?"

"Infected," Zechs calmly answered. "They hadn't been on board for ten minutes before the outbreak happened. They panicked and split up when the symptoms started."

"Speaking of symptoms," Matthews interjected, "why don't you have any? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad as hell that you're alright, but how come everyone else who wasn't inside an individual air source is dying and you're not?"

Deciding to feign ignorance, Zechs shrugged his shoulder. "I have no idea," he responded. "My only guess is that I have some random gene that protects me."

On the other screen Matthews offered a matching shrug. "I guess you're right. There really is no other explanation, huh?"

"None that I can think of," Zechs answered honestly. "Now, why is Malthis in your cargo hold?"

Matthews blinked in surprise as he remembered. "Oh, right! Like I said, he was inspecting the new system that you had installed, and when he inspects, he _really_ inspects. Since you put the main wiring circuits for it down near the cargo pit, he climbed inside to look it over. Just after he had climbed inside, I got a message from one of the med techs, telling me something about a killer disease on the loose and to try to get out while I could." The seasoned pilot's cheeks turned red as he confessed the end of his story. "I wanted to make sure the general was safe, so I closed the hatch on him…and apparently knocked him out in the process."

_Hn, I could have completed the mission just fine without the other three coming_, Zechs mused. _If they hadn't come at all, I would have been down here, and __**I**__ could be the one piloting the mobile suit with the unconscious enemy in the trunk_.

"So, what's our next move?" Zechs asked. "You said I should follow you, but we're on lockdown. How do we get out of here?"

"We don't," Matthews answered. "Not for a while, at least. Don't worry, these suits have enough air in the supply tanks to last a week. But when someone issues the lockdown code, none of the exits can be breached within twenty four hours. All we can do is sit here and wait."

Waiting was not Zechs' favorite method of strategy, but he was more than capable of it. "What do we do after that?" he asked.

"Escape," Matthews gravely answered. "I'll let you know when the twenty four hour period is over, and then I'm going to pray like hell that your hacking skills are as good as everyone says they are. You're going to have to override the access code so we can slip out of here and go to the backup site."

"Backup site?" Zechs asked, pretending he had no idea what the other man was talking about. Of course, after his months of undercover work, he was well aware that the general had a secondary location to be used in cases of emergency.

Matthews nodded. "It's in L2," he answered. "It's not much, but if nothing else it can be a safe house for us until we get reestablished."

"That makes sense," Zechs softly answered. "I don't think anyone else will be joining us, it really does look like the three of us will be the only survivors…"

Matthews looked compassionately at his taller counterpart. "You're not used to watching death, are you?"

Zechs blinked in surprise. "Isn't this hard for you to see?" It was a legitimate question. Even Zechs, for all the violence and death he had experienced in his life, was a little shaken by the effects the biohazard was wreaking on the men around him.

The other man offered a shrug. "Yeah, it bothers me," he softly answered, "but as long as there is nothing I can do about it, I don't see the point in getting worked up over it."

"I am hardly worked up," Zechs defended. _If anything, I'm not nearly worked up enough for the person I'm supposed to be. He may be a half decent pilot, but he's really not that observant when it comes to analyzing other people._ "And you haven't been face to face with them."

"And I intend to keep it that way," Matthews honestly answered. "Look, I'm sorry if it sounded like I was calling you a wuss or something, because really, I wasn't. If anything, _I'm_ the one taking the coward's option by not looking closely at what's happening. Hell, I even turned off my radio after the screaming started, and until I saw you running in here and looking okay, I turned off the sound system completely. It's…it's a lot to take. I'm actually impressed with how well you're dealing with this, Teran. I really am."

Zechs offered a smile in return. "I'm more of a 'stay alive now, panic later' kind of guy," he answered. _Actually, I'm really more of a 'cause anarchy now, brood introspectively for months on end later' kind of guy…_

"Well," Matthews said, trying to stretch out in the confines of his cockpit, "since it looks like we've got some time to kill, why don't we get some good old fashioned talking in? I mean, we've been seeing each other around the base, but we've never had a chance to really, you know, talk."

The former blonde suppressed the groan he felt coming on. He knew his background story inside and out, but he really didn't want to use _all_ of it in one sitting. "Well, I read an interesting article the other day about the decay rate of…"

"No, not stuff like that," Matthews interrupted with a laugh. "Look, I don't know about you, but my nerves are shot to hell and back. There are people dying all around me, the cause I've been fighting for has disintegrated completely, and my boss is lying unconscious in the cargo hold of my mobile suit. Let's talk about something completely irrelevant, like the craziest thing you ever did as a teenager."

_I commandeered a massive space battle station and tried to destroy the entire planet, how about you?_ Zechs sarcastically thought. "Why don't you go first, then?" he calmly answered. "I need a minute to think of one…" As he said that, he pulled out the small communication device he always carried with him. Silently, and making sure his hands were out of sight on the video screen, he relayed all the information he could about the effects of the biohazard. It wasn't much, but it might be enough to save Barton's life.

As Matthews began to regale his comrade with stories of fraternity pranks and drunken idiocies, Zechs had to fight to keep from rolling his eyes. _God, he's just like Maxwell, but not half as interesting…_

////

Far away from the drama, Noin pinched the bridge of her nose. Desk duty, she had decided, was her greatest enemy. Most of it was data entry and report writing, hardly the field work she was well trained to do.

She groaned as she rolled her neck, rubbing out her sore muscles. There was very little in life she despised more than the stiff neck she always ended up with after hours of staring at her computer screen. Deciding to take a break, Noin made her way to the kitchen.

All day she had been checking her messages, hoping and praying that her temporary bout with suburbia would already be over. She had no such luck, though. Quietly, she mused to herself about how long it would take for the op to be over. After all, she had some mighty big news for Zechs…

////

Several hours later, Quatre and Duo stood by, watching worriedly as their comrades were analyzed in quarantine. Both had negotiated, pleaded, and threatened to be able to suit up and go help, but Sally had adamantly refused. There was limited space in the quarantine area, and there just wasn't room for anyone who didn't absolutely have to be there.

Heero and Wufei, though less than happy, were otherwise fine. True to form, Heero had managed to break out of a complete lockdown without anyone being the wiser. The main facility that Malthis used was on an abandoned resource satellite, so the risk of external contamination was low. They were still being kept in isolation until Sally was one hundred percent convinced that there was no risk of them spreading the deadly bug to anyone else. And Sally was very, very thorough.

Or she would have been if their fallen comrade wasn't as bad as he was. Trowa's condition had gotten steadily worse as they had retreated. The sores were covering his body, and some of them had turned gangrenous. His fever had been steadily rising the entire flight back, and seemed to be holding steady at a hundred and five. His breathing had become more and more ragged as time went on. After about two hours, Trowa had started to vomit, and an hour after than he had vomited blood. Seizures would wrack his body off and on, and each one had been worse than the last.

But from what Zechs had told them, Trowa was lucky to still be alive.

An hour ago, they had been informed that everyone else who had been infected was long dead. The only three who were alive on that base were Zechs, a pilot named Matthews, and an unconscious General Malthis.

Quatre shifted nervously from one foot to the other. "It's been almost two hours since they started working on him. Why haven't they told us anything yet?" he softly asked.

"Probably because they're still working on him, Quat, and they don't have time to fill us in on every little detail," Duo answered.

The blonde shot a murderous glare at his friend. "Now is not the time for your smart assed remarks, Duo!" he snapped.

"Hey, hey, chill!" Duo answered, putting his hands up in a defensive manner. "That's just how I react to stress and you know that!"

"Well, would it kill you to keep your mouth shut right now?" Quatre shot back.

The braided pilot glared at his friend. "Quatre, right now I'm struggling not to make a joke about what would kill me if I kept it in! If they're still working on Trowa, that means that there's hope. They don't work on the guys who don't stand a chance. Now unbunch your panties and relax!"

As Quatre huffed quietly, Duo pulled him into a gentle hug. The Arabian suddenly wrapped his arms around the American, and he held on as though for dear life.

"Just you wait, Quat, and you'll see. Trowa's going to be just fine."

Duo took another glance into the room Trowa was in, and tried his hardest not to shudder.

"He'll be just fine…"

/\/\/\

Author's Note: Okay, it's shameless plug time.

I know this is an odd request, but please, if you have a minute, check out my profile. Some of my California friends are doing a walk for the cure for multiple sclerosis, and I put a link to their website on my profile page. I wish I could walk with them, but since I'm not in the same state and don't have, you know, time and money, I decided to help out another way.

Thanks, guys!


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: Okay, the amount of time it has been between updates has been obscene, and I openly admit that here and now. All I can do is beg forgiveness and hope that you're still willing to read!

/\/\/\

Two weeks had passed, though it had felt like months to the elite members of Preventers.

Trowa had managed to survive, barely, but his actual recovery was extremely slow. Even the simplest of tasks were beyond his capabilities then, right down to the act of sitting up. All of his feeding was done intravenously, as was the brutal regime of medication that was being pumped into his system. He was constantly plagued by chills, sweats, fairly severe pain, and even some residual vomiting, but he was showing slow signs of improvement. The sores were closing up, his organs were getting stronger, and his fever was down to a hundred and one.

Quatre remained by his side, using every one of his unique skills to ease the suffering of his companion. While most who walked by Trowa's hospital room thought that the blonde was simply offering words of comfort, those who knew the Arabian could only smile knowingly. They knew there was a reason that the pale blonde seemed paler than usual, had his own thin layer of sweat forming on his brow, but when checked for the plague that had struck Trowa, came up mysteriously clean.

Duo, Heero, and Wufei were trying to figure out exactly what had happened inside Malthis' compound. Who had been the one to set off the biological attack? Had they been planning to do so from the start, or was it an impromptu decision? Where was Zechs? Did he still have Malthis with him? Why had there been no further communication from the formerly blonde man? Much to their frustration, it seemed that both men had seemingly dropped out of the solar system entirely.

Une, never known for a long temper, was doing a remarkable job keeping everyone around her as sane through the chaos. Remaining cool and composed, she had delegated responsibilities, supported her agents, kept the organization going, and never compromised anyone in the field. She was certainly a far cry from the woman she had been only a few years earlier.

Poor Noin had nearly had a conniption when Une had told her that the mission would be longer than initially anticipated. A week living under an assumed name and identity had not seemed like anything she was incapable of tolerating, but as she began to end her third week as 'Claudia', she found herself getting more than fed up.

"I hate Une," she muttered, trying to brush out her recently extended hair. "I am never listening to that woman again. I don't care if she's my boss, I will never, ever do anything she tells me to for the remainder of my life!"

With a snarl, the pilot threw her hairbrush across the room. For the bulk of the previous week, Noin's mood had been all over the map. The simplest things would either send her into a fiery rage or make her drop to her knees in hysterics. Just three days earlier, she had dropped an empty plastic cup. It hadn't cracked, nothing had spilled, and yet she had spent the next hour sobbing.

"I hate these God damn mood swings!" she snarled as she ran her fingers through her hair. "I know it's a mood swing! I can identify it's a mood swing! Why he hell can't I _control_ the mood swing?"

With a growl, she began to braid her long hair. It was a day that she certainly was not looking forward to. At the end of her second month of pregnancy, she was getting ready to go in for her first sonogram. While normally such a thing was a happy occasion, the newly brunette woman was miserable. She had honestly believed that by this point in her pregnancy, she would have been reunited with her love. The idea of going through such a momentous thing alone had put her in the mood of all moods.

"Don't even get to go in as myself," she grumbled, slowly working her fingers through the long locks. Her hair had been cropped short when she had been eight years old, and she had never let it grow out since. She had spent the last few weeks slowly learning the finer points of working with longer hair, and had spent many an hour wondering how someone, even Duo Maxwell, managed to spent what must have been an endless amount of time learning how to effortlessly work long locks.

Finally reaching the end of the hair, Noin let out a huff. "I get to go to one of the biggest moments of my life dressed up like a doll I never would have played with as a kid." Slowly getting to her feet, she rubbed out her sore neck before heading to her bedroom. "I get to go alone, in a dress, with fake hair, a fake ID, and a fake life to find out if my real baby is okay."

Noin glanced down at her still smooth stomach, wondering if she really did want to go. Up until that point, the baby, at least in her mind, seemed more like a theoretical presence than a real one. All she had to go on was a blood sample, a simple hormone detection. She was certain that she was pregnant, her mood swings alone were proof of that, but…

A sonogram changed things. A sonogram meant that a baby was no longer something that came back as blood work, but actually a living being. A sonogram would let her actually hear a heartbeat, the rhythmic pulse of life inside her body.

It was actually a terrifying thought for her. She knew that hearing a heartbeat wouldn't physically change anything, but she had been reading enough on the subject to know that many women changed their perspectives on their pregnancies the moment they saw it.

"It's no big deal," she whispered to herself, running her fingers along her toned tummy. "The baby is already in there. The baby already has a heartbeat. The only difference is that the sound waves from that beat will be amplified to a level at which I will physically be capable of hearing it. It's no big deal."

Slowly letting out a breath, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. "It's no big deal…"

A knock suddenly sounded at her door, causing her head to snap to the side. Not once, since the day she had moved in, had anyone come by to visit her. She had made a point out of avoiding her neighbors, playing the role of grieving widow just well enough to be left alone. None of her friends knew where she was, and with any luck at all, her enemies were in the same situation. The only person who truly knew who she was and where she was happened to be Une, and Noin was not naïve enough to believe that the power hungry woman would risk breaking cover for the sake of a social visit.

Quickly sliding on a baggy shirt and sweatpants, Noin hopped to the entry way table next to her front door. With swiftness born from years of combat and training, she slid a combat knife out from the hidden panel before looking through the peephole.

She stared through the hole for almost a minute, her eyes hardly believing what she was seeing. "What the hell…"

Noin undid the bolts on the door and pulled back the chain, slowly opening it. "Who are…"

"Sis!" the girl in front of her cried out, hugging the taller woman.

The brown haired Noin grunted as she staggered back into her apartment. "What the hell?"

"Oh, I missed you so much!" the girl said loudly, giggles in her familiar voice. "I kept meaning to come by and visit, but you know how crazy my schedule can be."

Letting go, she began to walk all around the apartment, trying to touch almost everything. "I love what you've done with the place!" she beamed.

Noin stared at the younger woman. "Yeah," she muttered, finally realizing how she knew that voice. "I'm just a natural at this…"

Whipping around, the younger woman took three quick strides toward the pilot. "Just making sure that the room was cleared," she softly said. "No traces of bugs or a wire tap, and I put in a few frequency blockers, just in case someone tries to change that."

"Hilde, how the hell did you know I was here?" Noin hissed.

Hilde Schpiker smirked at the senior soldier, shaking out her own dyed, extended hair. "Une sent me," she simply answered. "And before you ask, don't worry. None of the guys know I'm here. Duo's with the other boys working on the whole Malthis thing, and the last communication I had with him was more than enough to know that he would be 'unavailable for contact barring severe, Armageddon level emergency'. He disappears all the time. The only difference is that I did, too."

"But…but why you?" the tall woman questioned. "No offense, Hilde, but you're not exactly who I would have sent in this position. Hell, I didn't even think you were a member of Preventer."

"That's why she sent me," Hilde calmly answered. "No one would associate my 'vacation' with you."

Sitting down on her couch, Noin kept trying to wrap her head around the situation. "I'm still not clear on why you're here at all," she eventually stated. "It's been several weeks since I got here. Why now?"

Hilde squirmed a little as she sat down in the recliner. "There have been…indications…that you may be here longer than originally anticipated. Because of the length of the duration, it was decided that, in your condition, it would be wise to send someone who could help out."

Noin sat forward. "How much longer?" she hoarsely questioned.

The younger woman sucked in her left cheek and nervously chewed on the inside. "From the reports we gathered, it seems unlikely that we will be done with everything in under five months."

"Five months?" Noin shouted.

Trying to shush her superior, Hilde waved her arms defensively. "Keep your voice down! The walls in this place or thick, but screaming might actually get through!"

Flopping back against the couch, Noin groaned. "So you're saying at the absolute earliest, by the time everything is dealt with, I'll be…"

"At least seven months along," Hilde sadly finished. "Which was why Une decided that an 'assistant' should be sent to you."

With a tired sigh, Noin closed her eyes and tried to steady her nerves. "I still don't understand why they sent _you_," she softly said. She cracked open an eye before adding, "No offense."

"None taken," the short woman answered with a soft smile. "Une didn't trust any agents inside the organization to either keep their mouths shut about you or be too stupid to figure out who you were. She actually sought me out at the scrap yard last week. Because of my relationship with Duo, and my history as a soldier with OZ, she knew that if nothing else I would be a skilled defender. I've spent the bulk of the last week going through background check after background check and put in thousands of 'what if' scenarios, and it actually wasn't until three this morning that I found out what my mission was." Shrugging, she added, "Plus, you and I actually do look a lot alike."

She stretched out her legs and popped her shoulders. "So, after fairly exhaustive research and death threats that make Trowa's fighting style look subtle, Une had me pulled in under an alias, sent to human resources, and then sent up to her office as an applicant for the apparently oft open position as Une's assistant. From there, I was told virtually nothing until…well, you get the idea."

A faint smile reached Noin's face. "Sometimes I wonder if Une actually wants a secretary or just uses the idea for one as an excuse to interrogate people."

"Well, so far 'interrogating' is winning," Hilde said with a giggle. She reached into her purse and tossed something Noin's way. "Check out my new wallet."

Noin flipping the black leather open, inspecting it thoroughly. "Let's see here: Anastasia Kristen Thomas, age twenty-one…you have cards for two different banks…"

"Oh, because the checking is easier with the red one, but the savings are better with the blue one," Hilde interrupted.

The senior soldier raised an eyebrow. "Are these your…"

"Not my actual financial institutions," the smaller woman assured. "I'm just a little neurotic as Stacy."

"It says Anastasia," Noin reread, making sure she was correct.

Hilde rolled her eyes as she fidgeted in her chair. "It's a nickname, genius. I'm your sister now, and as such, I am entitled to a nickname."

Flipping through the various card holders, Noin added, "And you seem to be addicted to an international coffee chain, going by all the gift cards."

Hilde blushed and fiddled with her hair. "Yeah, those are real…"

A tired sigh escaped Noin's lips. "My kid sister, huh?"

"Here to help you out!" she beamed. "And don't worry, I actually know just about everything about pregnancy, so I'll be more than just a spare set of hands."

Noin raised a brow at that statement, not entirely certain how a girl who had been in the military since the age of fourteen would be an expert on the subject, but she decided to hold that question for another day. After all, they were going to be spending the next five months with each other. There had to be _something_ for them to talk about.

Simultaneously, both ex-OZ pilots got to their feet. "So," Hilde said, reaching for the coat rack, "if I'm not mistaken, you've got an appointment to get to. After all, I need to know if my little niece or nephew is nice and healthy! Let's go find us a heartbeat!"

The tall woman took her coat from her shorter counterpart. "Yeah," she softly said. "Heartbeat…"


	9. Chapter 9

Zechs relaxed in the seat of his mobile suit, trying to use up as little oxygen as possible. Six days had passed since the outbreak, and even the seasoned pilot would be lying if he said he was not at least a little concerned for his situation.

He and Matthews had gotten out of the installation in their mobile suits because there was no other option for them. There was no possible way to leave the cockpits without risking contamination, and there was no way to pilot a shuttle from within the massive humanoid weapons. While Zechs' alias had seemingly been immune to the biohazard that had completely wiped out everyone else, no one was comfortable with the idea of putting that to the test again. Had he been alone, Zechs would have chanced it and simply commandeered a shuttle. However, as Malthis was not in his direct custody, and Matthews seemed increasingly paranoid about the biohazard, so the former blonde was forced to do what it took to keep Matthews calm and on his side.

However, mobile suits were not designed for extreme distance traveling through space. They had air for fourteen days, but limited fuel to compensate for the extra air tanks. Theoretically, the current model was ideal because the fuel would last for thirty six hours, far longer than the vast majority of battles, but the excess air would allow a stranded soldier to survive until a rescue crew could get to them.

With that cap on their fuel, though, and the distance they needed to travel, both pilots knew that they could not make a straight shot for L2. They had to rely on using their initial momentum and their fuel mostly for correctional aim bursts.

A journey that would have taken a day in a shuttle was taking them almost a full week. The first day's worth of oxygen was used simply waiting for an opportunity to get out of lockdown, and there was no place they could refuel. They were members of a secret military force. They could not show their faces anywhere. They could not stop until they reached their base.

And the other suit was supplying air for two, cutting survival times in half.

Over six days of oxygen had been used. They had just under nineteen hours before they ran out of air, and by Zechs' calculations, it would take at least eighteen and a half hours until they would be safe. The seasoned warrior had managed to keep his breathing pattern slow and steady, which would increase his survivability by hours, if not days. However, he had air to spare. If either Matthews or Malthis had been agitated during the journey and increased their rate of respiration, those precious few minutes could easily have been lost.

If they did run out of air, both men in the other suit would die. While Matthews seemed to be a decent fellow, his death would be no major loss to the mission. A misfortune of war, but one Zechs could live with.

Malthis, on the other hand, was not a loss the operation could handle. It was Malthis that knew how deep his revolution went. It was Malthis who knew how many hidden troops there were. It was Malthis that had possible control over weapons capable of bringing Armageddon to at least several colonies, possibly the Earth itself. Without Malthis alive for questioning, they might not be able to find out how far the plan went before it was too late.

Besides, if the mission ended up with Malthis dead and unable to answer questions, Zechs was going to be royally pissed off that he had been forced to parade around as someone else when he could have just walked in and shot him.

Eighteen hours, thirty two hours until they reached their destination. Eighteen hours, fifty six minutes until the other mobile suit was guaranteed to run out of air. Sixteen hours, seven minutes until they might run out of air if either man had panicked.

It was going to be close…

/////

Noin sighed as she looked at the picture on her refrigerator again. The black and white image was blurry and hard to make out. Honestly, to her, it looked like a peanut. However, she had been assured by her doctor, the technician, and Hilde that the peanut was, in fact, her child.

Her midsection was still trim and well defined, which made it still occasionally difficult for her to accept the idea that she was, in fact, pregnant.

It was odd. It had been several weeks since she had found out she was with child, but every once in a while, it still seemed like a dream.

"You still alive over there?"

Noin blinked and turned around, looking at Hilde. "Huh?"

Hilde hopped up on the counter, taking in a spoonful of her yogurt. "You have, for the seventh time today, spaced out in front of Peanut there."

The senior soldier rolled her eyes. "Why do you insist on calling my child that?"

"Because that's what it looks like!" Hilde quickly responded. It sounded awkward though, since she did still have yogurt in her mouth. The girl quickly swallowed and wiped a stray bit off the corner of her mouth. "And," she went on, "since we don't know if you're having a boy or a girl, I figure Peanut is just as good a nickname as any."

"You're insane," Noin responded. "And when do you get helpful?"

Hilde playfully kicked the other woman softly against the shoulder. "I am helpful, you ingrate!" she shot back. "Hell, I do more chores around here than you do!"

Noin scowled as she opened up the refrigerator. "I am a soldier, Hilde…"

"Stacy," the younger woman quietly corrected. They might have been alone at the moment, but they needed to stay in character as much as possible.

"Stacy," Noin repeated, "I have never, in my life, been domesticated. I'm an army brat. I have spent my entire life living on bases or on active duty. This concept of staying in an apartment and 'relaxing' as I stay behind a computer screen is almost breaking my brain. I'm not technologically illiterate, but this is not how I thought I would be spending any real chunk of time."

Hilde shrugged, swallowing another bite of yogurt. "Life's tough, get a helmet."

Noin shut the appliance door and slammed a tub of cottage cheese on the counter, next to her 'sister'. "Have I ever told you how much of a comfort you are?" she sarcastically shot.

"As much as you ever will," the younger woman responded. She kicked the lower cabinet with her heel as she tossed her empty yogurt container across the kitchen and into a trash can. "The point is, _Claudia_, that whether you like it or not, you've got several months before field work is even _remotely_ an option again. Assuming that you decide to have your child placed in daycare as early as possible to allow you to be activated again, there is no way anyone would let a woman do that kind of work within a _minimum_ of six weeks after giving birth."

"Is this your idea of a pep talk?" the taller woman growled, spooning her snack into a dish.

Hilde slid off the counter and placed a hand on Noin's shoulder. "It's a reality talk," she softly replied. "You, like most pregnant women, are focused on only what happens during the nine months that Peanut is inside of you. But answer me honestly, have you put serious, realistic thought about what you're going to do once you do give birth? Have you thought about what it means to return to your career at earliest convenience to you? Have you thought about day care, nannies, living arrangements, money flow…any of it?"

Noin slammed her bowl against the counter before angrily starting to close the lid of the cottage cheese. "No, okay?" she bit out. "I haven't. I haven't thought about daycare or any of that other stuff. I've been a little preoccupied with this whole new life thing and trying to figure out how to tell…my significant other…" She was still cautious of using Zechs' name, "that I am about to give birth to a child he had no idea existed."

The shorter woman held up her hands defensively. "Okay, okay, I get it," she quickly responded. "I really do understand that it's a lot to deal with, and I get that you're under a lot of stress and in a foreign environment. I just want to make sure that the idea is in your head. I want to make sure that at some point, between now and when Peanut is born, you do get a chance to work out a basic idea of what comes next."

She gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "I know you've already figured this out, but babies change every aspect of your life. I just want to make sure that you're not caught totally off guard by this when Peanut comes to join us."

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Noin lowered her head and nodded. "I know, Hil…Stacy…I know. I just wish that all of this could be dealt with and done with. Don't get me wrong, I want this baby. I really do. It's just…"

"Overwhelming?" the younger woman sympathetically offered.

"Bingo." She shook her head as she brought it up. She sighed as she put away the container, grabbed her bowl, and walked over to the kitchen table. "Don't worry, _Stacy_, I'm not actually falling apart. Even though you've only been here a few days, surely you've noticed that I'm a tad, um, moody lately."

"Duly noted," Hilde laughed, taking a seat across from her new sister. "And remember, no matter what happens, I'm here to help you in whatever way you can."

Noin smiled at Hilde. "I know," she softly answered. "And for that, I am grateful."

/////

Seventeen hours later, Zechs heard the telltale sound of an incoming message. He reached over and turned on his screen, allowing him to look at his fellow soldier. "Yes, Matthews?"

On the screen, the other man did not look good at all. "Teran," he softly said, panting with each breath he took, "we have a problem. The…the air tanks…"

"Don't worry," the former blonde calmly stated. "Use the remaining fuel you have for a final burst of speed. We should make it in plenty of time." It was a lie, though. A blatant one. If they used every last drop of fuel that they had and flew as fast as they could, then even if they weren't out of air, the speed of impact would likely cause catastrophic damage when they hit the ground. There was no other way, though, and keeping Matthews calm would increase their chances.

Matthews offered a knowing smile. "Yeah, right," he quietly responded. "Look, in case I don't make it…"

"Don't talk," Zechs commanded. "Save your air."

"If I don't make it," the other pilot repeated, "I want you to do something for me."

_Oh, God, I hate when soldiers do this_, the former blonde thought. _I am not their 'buddy'. I am not their 'friend'. I am not their 'confidant'. I do not do last requests. Especially not from men who know that they're running out of oxygen and yet insist on talking._ "Matthews," he calmly said again, "save your breath."

"You need to…to know this," he pushed on. "When I signed up for this, I…I did it because I knew that it was the right thing to do. They abandoned us, Teran. They abandoned us to die when they were done with us, and they didn't give a damn about us. This was…was our way to get back on our feet. Malthis gave us a chance, Teran. He…he gave us a reason to fight again. He gave us a reason to live again."

"Matthews," Zechs said yet again, his voice as firm as ever, "you do not have the air supply to be telling me this. Stop talking."

Matthews closed his eyes for a moment. "Teran, I want you to promise me that no matter what happens to me…not matter what happens to Malthis…"

"Don't," the superior pilot commanded, holding up a hand. "You know you have a limited air supply, and you are wasting what little you have by speaking. Do not say another word."

The other man nodded and closed his eyes again. He took a deep breath before turning off the communications.

An hour passed without another word spoken. The two suits, aimed at an external port to an abandoned part of the colony, were flying far too fast for an unnoticed landing. Zechs opened up the communications between the two suits. "Matthews, reduce your speed."

Only silence greeted him. "Matthews…Matthews, do you read me?"

No response came, and Zechs grit his teeth. "Damn it," he growled. The seasoned warrior accelerated, using up most of his remaining fuel. Barely able to catch up, Zechs used the arms of his suit to grapple the other one. Those last ounces of fuel in his tank immediately were burned up for one final course correction and a drastic attempt to slow down.

With potentially devastating speed, the two suits plummeted toward their destination. Matthews was unconscious. No one knew what condition Malthis was in. Both might be out of air. Zechs was out of any fuel.

There was nothing left anyone could do but pray.


	10. Chapter 10

Zechs groaned as he opened his eyes. The impact had been brutal, even for him. His own machine had been on the bottom of the two when they had plowed violently in to their target, and part of his cabin had been crushed. Pieces of shrapnel were deeply imbedded in his left shoulder, and his left leg was trapped between well mutilated metal. Blood flowed freely from his left temple, and he was certain that at least a few of his ribs were broken.

But he had no time to tend to his own wounds. He needed to find out immediately if either of the two men in the other suit were even alive. If not, then he would tend to his own wounds before bitterly calling in a defeat to headquarters. If they were alive, though, they would most certainly be in critical condition. They would need help, and they would need it instantly.

The former blonde groaned as he used his good arm to pry his own leg free. As soon as he could, he escaped from his cockpit and forced his way on top of the other suit. He made quick work of the lock on the door and opened up Matthew's cabin. His top priority was certainly Malthis, but he couldn't even get to Malthis without access to the controls. The mobile suit certainly could not fly without fuel, but if he was lucky, Zechs could use the remaining electrical power to roll the machine over and obtain access to Malthis.

He just had to pray that the man was still alive.

Zechs pulled Matthews unceremoniously from the cockpit. Vital signs would have to be checked later. The less experienced pilot was dumped just out of range of the suit before Zechs powered up the mobile suit and turned it as delicately as he could.

As quickly as he could, the tall man opened up the back hatch. He sprinted around as quickly as his battered body would allow him to and crawled inside. His fingers went straight to the general's throat, checking for any sign of a pulse.

Nothing.

With a snarl, Zechs pulled Malthis clear out of the hatch and lay the body on the ground. "Shit," he muttered, positioning his mouth above Malthis'. He steadily began CPR, hoping against long, if not impossible, odds that there was a chance at resuscitating the general. The suits had not been fully equipped for battle, so Zechs was forced to do what he could without a proper med kit. No adrenaline, nothing to jolt the heart back into life, nothing at all but his own body and knowledge.

Seconds passed, then minutes. No response was made by the general.

"Shit…"

/////

Noin grumbled as she finished up her latest report. It had been several weeks since she had been confined to her apartment, and she had been tasked with what in her mind felt like an endless string of high school reports. Une would send her raw statistics, and Noin would write out the details in a more comprehensible form.

For a former pilot and well honored soldier like Noin, it was hell.

"That's it," she grumbled, closing her laptop, "I need to get out."

From across the living room, Hilde paused the workout she had been doing. "Where should we go?"

Noin raised a dyed eyebrow at her 'sister'. "We?" she asked.

"Yes, we," Hilde affirmed. "I know it's been, like, a day and a half since I got here, but I was actually sent as part time helper and full time bodyguard. You go nowhere without me except the bathroom."

The elder woman groaned. "I am more than capable of taking care of my self," she countered.

Hilde offered a shrug before putting her weights down. "Look, sweetie, I don't doubt that for a second. Believe me, when I was going through my training to become a soldier, it was your picture I stared at, dreaming of someday reaching your level. The guys in the academy may have talked about how blondie was the number one graduate, but all the girls knew that it was because you let him."

That was hardly the response Noin had been expecting. She shifted her weight in her chair. "You can't really think that, can you?"

The smaller female walked up to her inspiration and grabbed her hand gently. "Noin," she very quietly spoke, "you were a better soldier than any other female in the academy has ever been, including Une. You were the best of the best, and everyone knew it. So yes, I know you can protect yourself, but please, let me have the honor of fulfilling my duty of protecting you."

"You've practiced this speech, haven't you?" Noin chuckled.

Hilde blushed slightly, dropping her gaze. "Um, maybe a little…" She shook out her head and quickly regained her composure. "Look, regardless of all of that, I am not going back to Une and tell her that I let you out of my sight. She's as good a shot as you, but she's definitely more likely to actually shoot you."

Noin laughed at the statement, understanding all to well what it felt like to have Une mad at her. Back during the war, Noin had honestly been a little afraid of the older woman's temper. Une had a dangerous combination of strategic brilliance, military power, and a complete lack of conscience in the beginning. That woman really was likely to shoot someone for a slip up, though Noin honestly did believe that the woman's violent tendencies had most certainly become contained after the war ended.

That still didn't mean that she would want to tick the woman off…

"Fine," she eventually consented, "you can come to."

Hilde pumped her arm in victory as she hopped back up. "Great! I'll go take a shower to get this sweat off of me, and you decide what we're going to do." Without waiting for a reply, the younger woman practically bounced toward the bathroom.

Noin shook her head. "I swear," she muttered, "sometimes, it's like she and Duo are one person…"

Ten minutes later, the 'sisters' were finally ready and heading out. "So," Hilde asked, climbing in to the passenger's seat of the car, "where are we going?"

"Lunch and a movie?" Noin asked.

"Perfect!"

/////

Une paced back and forth, a furious look on her face as she awaited news. The last time Zechs had contacted her had been a week earlier, and the intimidating woman was more than aware of the fact that the man was running on limited resources and a potentially devastating circumstances.

He should have checked in already…

Leaning casually in his chair, Duo rolled his eyes. "I know you're going to shoot me for asking this," he finally said, an hour after she had arrived, "but don't you have the largest agency in the history of non-wartime civilization to be running?"

Heero and Quatre, who had been sitting next to the braided pilot, both very casually slid away from him. No sane man, not even seasoned warrior like themselves, should willingly be in that woman's potential line of fire.

At the moment, Une was tempted to live up to her reputation. If it weren't for the fact that she relied heavily on the former Gundam pilots to help maintain the peace, Duo would probably have been shot by her years ago.

"This is the most pressing issue Preventers is working on," she growled, glaring at the young man. "And, as I'm sure you understand, if this mission does not turn out well, we will not be in good shape. Of course, by 'we', I mean humanity."

Duo just shook his head. "Yeah, I get that and all, but there are other missions going on right now, Ma'am, and you always have at least three of the five of us on this one at all times. Isn't there anything better you could be doing with your time than pacing around in this room?"

Quatre nervously cleared his throat. "Um, what I believe my friend here is trying to say is that we have things covered here, so if you wanted to take a break or maybe check in on some of the other missions, you will have nothing to worry about. I assure you, Ma'am, we will inform you the moment we hear anything."

Although Une hated the severe lack of respect her subordinates were showing her at the moment, even she had to admit that they had a point. Her job was to maintain Preventers, and she could not do that adequately pacing anxiously in a small, secluded communications room.

"You are to have, at absolute minimum, three of you manning this station at all times." Duo opened his mouth, ready to comment on the fact that they were already doing that, but Quatre used remarkably fast reflexes to clamp a hand over the brunet's mouth.

"Absolutely," the Arabian quickly agreed. "Go rest for a while, Ma'am, and we'll take care of everything down here."

As the clearly agitated woman left, Quatre removed his hand from Duo's mouth. The American stretched out his jaw for a moment. Quatre had been gripping that jaw so hard that the braided man actually thought there might be some bruising. "Damn, man," he groaned, cracking his sore jaw, "why'd you have to do that so hard?"

Quatre gave Duo an only mildly apologetic look. "If we wanted to have any chance of getting her to leave," he calmly pointed out, "then we needed to do it diplomatically."

Off on the side, Heero continued to stare at the communications devices. "She has a valid concern," he neutrally stated, more so to himself than to the others. "Zechs should have said something to us by now."

The room went quiet for a moment. It was a fact that they had already known, but to hear it out loud seemed to require a moment of thought. Severely uncomfortable with awkward silences, Duo struck up a conversation with Quatre about Trowa's increasing recovery.

But thoughts of an endangered mission were not far from any of their minds.

/////

Three more weeks passed, but it felt like months to all involved. No word came from Zechs. No signal, no message, no sign at all that he was even alive. If it weren't for the fact that the former blonde had a history of disappearing for a while during missions, a search team would have been sent out immediately.

But even for Zechs, three weeks was a disturbingly long time to be missing in action.

"I say we hunt him down," Duo bluntly said to his fellow pilots.

Trowa, though not nearly strong enough to go on another mission any time soon, was deemed well enough to leave his hospital room. "I agree," he calmly stated. "There is no reason for Zechs to have been gone for this long with no signs of him that do not point to a compromised mission. I believe it would be in our best interest to go to the area that we knew he was headed."

"But we don't have exact coordinates," Quatre counseled. "All the information he had been able to get to us about his destination was that he was heading to the L2 area. There are half a dozen colonies in the L2 cluster, and any one of them would take weeks to months to check thoroughly.

Wufei crossed his arms as he considered what was being said. "Well, we could shave a lot of time off a search by ruling out largely civilian areas," he reasoned out loud. "If Malthis really has a large military installation, it would be impossible to set up in a densely populated area without anyone noticing."

"Even if we do eliminate those areas, we're still talking a multi week search to cover any possible locations," Heero pointed out. "Every single colony out there had some sort of military installation on it during the war. There are certain areas, even with a civilian population, where it would not be unreasonable to set up military equipment."

"And there are dozens of resource satellites out there that are also potential candidates," Quatre added. "It would require more than the five of us to have any reasonable chance at finding him before it would simply be too late to be worth it."

Duo grumbled, but had to admit that they had a point. The only ones who even knew the mission existed were the five of them, Une, Zechs, and…

"Hey, does anyone know _exactly_ where Noin's been?"

The other four froze in whatever position they had been in. They had spent the past few weeks working every potential threat from Malthis and only made contact with those they absolutely had to. They had asked about their senior soldier several times in the past few weeks, but Une had always casually dismissed their questions, simply stating that the woman was busy working on something.

But it had been weeks and weeks since any of them had actually laid eyes on her…

Heero got to his feet and stormed toward Une's office. It was time to get some answers.


	11. Chapter 11

"Your doctor's appointment is in a half hour," Hilde called out from her workout in the living room. "You may want to start getting your stuff together now!"

Noin grumbled from her room. "You go. I'm tired."

Hilde rolled her eyes and got off her workout mat. She turned off her music and banged on the bedroom door of her 'dear sister'. "Tell it to the doctor, _sis_. The appointment is in thirty minutes, so we need to be out the door in the next fifteen. Get your ass out of that bed and get ready to go!"

The elder woman growled into her pillow. In the past week, she had been utterly exhausted. If left to her own devices, she actually might have been able to sleep for an entire day straight. Even though she knew she had to get to her appointment, she really wanted to just stay in her room.

In a rare moment of juvenile behavior, she ignored her wakeup call and burrowed against her pillow.

Unfortunately for her, Hilde seemed to expect resistance. The twenty year old woman gave two very quick knocks before letting herself in. "Come on, sleepy head! It's time to get up and greet the day!"

"I swear to God," Noin threatened, "if you say one more cheery thing, I will murder you."

"I have your gun," Hilde casually retorted, "so I can be as cheery as I want."

Noin sat up slightly and glared at the younger woman. "I never said I would _shoot_ you," she clarified. "I said I would _murder_ you. There are thousands of ways to do that, you know."

Hilde simply shrugged and began to pull things out of Noin's closet. "I know that," she replied. "However, since I know that you don't want to deal with either Une or Duo after such an untimely demise for me, I'm fairly certain I'm in the clear."

The senior soldier groaned as she sat up all the way. She was still slightly nauseous, but her sickness was not nearly as bad as it had been in her first trimester. The fatigue was awful, but at least she was keeping food down again.

"I hate these things," she grumbled, slowly getting out of bed. "I have a 10:30 appointment, but you and I both know damn well that I'm not actually going to see a doctor until almost eleven. That means a whopping half hour in a room of women who I swear were placed there for the sole purpose of reminding me what hell I'm going to be experiencing for the next five and a half months."

She took a shirt that Hilde offered her, and she slowly began to change in to it. "If that woman who got sick on me last time is there, can I shoot her?"

"We've got rules against shooting pregnant civilians," Hilde casually responded.

Noin shrugged as she buttoned up her shirt. "I suppose you're right." As her temporary sister handed her a skirt, though, Noin made a face. Not only was she still averse to the idea of skirts in general, but the size of it reminded the woman of the fact that she no longer had a fantastic six pack. At three and a half months along, her once rock hard abdominals had officially started to form the telltale bump of pregnancy.

"When all is said and done," she grumbled, "I am going to have a very long conversation with our nearsighted commander about her choice in my wardrobe."

"I'm sure," Hilde casually replied. "I'm going to take a very quick shower, and then we've got to go."

"Yes, mother," Noin sarcastically shot back.

The younger woman chuckled as she left the room, heading for a much needed shower. It actually entertained her quite a bit to hear Noin, one of the greatest fighter pilots in history, act like a little delinquent.

"Five minutes!" she called over her shoulder.

Once again, Noin grumbled. She was still exhausted, and she really did not want to return to that doctor's office, especially after what happened the last time. The doctor himself was fine, but the waiting room was like hell to her. Plus, being there meant that she could not stay in her bed.

Fighting to stay awake, Noin got up to her feet and began to get her stuff together. "Might as well get this done and over with…"

/

Une sat in her office chair, removed her contacts, and closed her eyes for a minute. It had been a long, long time since she had gotten sufficient rest. For quite a while, she had been trying to operate several major operations without allowing most of them to overlap.

And she was the only one who knew exactly how complicated the entire ordeal was.

Zechs was undercover and had been M.I.A. for almost a month. Noin, pregnant with Zech's child, had been relocated in the name of mission security. Neither had any idea of the state the other was in. The Gundam pilots knew about Zechs, but not about Noin. And as their little soap opera went on, some psycho with a private army was trying to take over the universe.

It was times like these where Une really hated her job.

A sharp knock on the door interrupted Une's cherished sixty seconds of rest. She really needed to get an actual secretary, and one that would not run away the first time she lost her legendary temper. "This better be important!" she bellowed.

From the other side of the door, Heero shuttered slightly. Une remained the only person on the planet that actually scared him a little bit, particularly when she was in one of her more destructive moods. He opened the door and walked in. "It is," he coolly assured his superior.

"Well, what is it?" Une demanded. She was not in the mood for company, and she wanted him out fast.

"Where is Noin?" the pilot demanded right back.

The headache that the commander had been fighting off for days seemed to return with a force. "Noin is working on a side project related to the Malthis case," Une responded. It was a vague line, but it had always worked before.

Heero was not buying it. "What branch of this disaster is she working on?"

"If I felt that it was necessary for you to know," Une sharply retorted, "you would have been told." She looked down and unlocked her top drawer, indicating that she was done with the conversation.

"How could what Noin is working on possibly not be related to what we are working on?" the pilot pushed on.

Une reached within that drawer and pulled out her round glasses. Slowly, she placed them on her face and pressed them up along the bridge of her nose. The glaring lights in the room reflected harshly from the circular lenses. "Yuy," she firmly said, her voice low and level, "I have already stated that you do not need to know the details of what Noin is working on. Yes, what she is doing is related to what you are working on, but until I feel that her efforts directly overlap or could provide any useful information for your branch of this operation, you are not on the need to know list."

Heero's eyes narrowed. He knew that she was hiding something, and that it was something big. But when those glasses went on Une's face, the negotiations were over. Glasses meant that she was officially on the verge of pulling out her sidearm and putting it to good use.

"Understood, Madam Director," he coolly spoke. He turned sharply on his heel and exited the large office, more determined than ever to find out exactly what it was Une was hiding.

/

Noin lay back on the exam table and rested her arms behind her head. "Ready whenever you are," she muttered to the technician.

The tiny, blonde young lady smiled cheerfully at the now brunette pregnant woman. "Okie dokie, artichokie!" she cheerfully responded. "We're going to be able to get a _fantastic_ picture of your baby, and you'll be able to take it home and look at it all you want! Now, let's get this show on the road!"

All of the color drained from Noin's face, and she turned, wide eyed, toward Hilde. "Oh lord, she's worse than you!" she hissed.

Hilde blinked, staring at the overly chipper young woman. "I know," she quietly responded. "I didn't think that was possible…"

The extremely happy technician began to rub the wand over Noin's midsection. "Okay, Claudia," she chirped, "just relax and we'll have that picture up in no time at all!"

Noin's eyes narrowed at her 'sister', and she held on to Hilde's hand as though for dear life. "I'm going to throttle her if she doesn't dial it down," she whispered.

Hilde squeezed back, but could really only offer a sympathetic smile. "Just a couple minutes," she whispered back. "After that, she'll be gone."

"I don't know it I can tolerate her for that long…"

Sensing the increasing pressure in her hand from Noin's squeeze, Hilde reached around behind the monitor with her spare hand. She delicately pulled out a cable and placed it on the back of the table.

The image on the monitor blurred, then disappeared. The happy technician's face went blank for a moment as she tried to puzzle out what to do. "Oh, my," she squeaked, "it's never done _that_ on me before…"

She got to her feet and walked around the rolling table, looking for any signs of what might be wrong with her equipment. As she began to scan, Hilde snuck her hand to the side of the machine and slid her slender fingers into a vent on the side. The temporary brunette dislodged two wires silently before removing her hand altogether.

The technician quickly put that first chord back where it came from and skittered back to the front, certain that everything would be fine. Much to her surprise, though, the system was still unresponsive. "Huh, that's new," she stated with surprise. "Gee, you know what? I think I should go find someone who knows more about this than I do…"

The tiny blonde skittered out of the room, and all Noin could do was stare. "I thought our beloved den mother said she was getting me the best doctors," she very quietly hissed.

"Must be a newbie," Hilde calmly said, leaving Noin's side and peeking out through the door. "And just between you and me, that woman was so damn happy that _I_ almost shot her." A doctor was walking down the hallway, and Hilde quickly flagged her down. After a brief exchange, she thanked the doctor and returned to Noin's side.

"I was right," she confirmed. "She's new. First day, first solo patient."

Noin's eyes narrowed dangerously as she sat up. "That's it! Give me something to clean that gell off of my stomach with, fetch my clothes, and get me the hell out of here!"

With unbelievable ease, Hilde guided the senior soldier back down. "Don't worry about it," she assured. "The doctor I just spoke to assured me that Perky McHappyface will not be returning to our room. They're sending a seasoned tech in here, along with your private physician."

The taller woman let out a slow breath. "Perky McHappyface?" she asked her 'sister'.

Hilde simply shrugged as she picked her words carefully. After all, names of people and locations could not be used in a public realm. "My guy uses it when some overly happy person comes our way."

Noin chuckled at the thought of Duo, of all people, considering someone to be _too_ happy. "How are you two doing, anyway?" she asked.

The younger of the pair smiled wistfully. "Never better," she happily replied. "The last few years with him have been great. I mean, I really wish that he weren't away on, er, _business trips_ as often as he is, but other than that, it's amazing. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to have someone there for you all the time, to know that someone's got your back in a fight and who will still say you're cute in the aftermath."

At that moment, the doctor entered the room with a new technician. The standard questions began, asking about her comfort, nausea, and a thousand other routine things. But Noin was only halfway paying attention to them. Her mind kept going back to what Hilde had been talking about, about having someone who was always there when you needed them.

She and Zechs had barely had a chance to settle in with one another before he left for his mission. They had come to the decision, after _many_ tentative years, that they really did want a live with one another. Several discussions later, Zechs had a key to Noin's place and had been moving himself in one duffel bag at a time.

As the actual physical examination began, Noin thought back to Zechs' behavior all those months ago. It had been obvious to her that he had wanted to get their new life started, and yet he had remained reluctant to actually move his things in. In retrospect, Noin understood completely.

That did not make going through her pregnancy without her lover any easier.

On the screen, the image of their unborn child appeared. Noin drew a quiet breath as she listened to the beat of the child's heart. It was a moment that she would have given anything to share with her lover.

_Zechs should be here,_ she miserably thought. _He should be the one holding my hand. He should be the one listening to the heartbeat. He should be the one telling me that this is wonderful._

_Where is he?_


	12. Chapter 12

Zechs adjusted the bandage on his wrist as he sat down against the wall. For three weeks, he had been completely confined to the bunker they had crashed in to. His predicament made it seemingly impossible to contact headquarters and let them know the poor status of his mission. He had no forms of transportation, no forms of communication, he was more severely injured than he cared to admit, and they were going to run out of food rations in about a week.

His radios, phones, and all other forms of communication had been utterly destroyed by the crash of the suits. There was not nearly enough fuel left to get him to a location from which he could steal the parts he would need to repair them. What little materials and battery power had been left in the two crashed suits were in use as an extremely makeshift life support machine for Malthis.

The general was not dead, but if Zechs did not get that man proper medical attention soon, he would be.

Matthews had barely pulled through, but the pilot was still kicking. He had several broken bones, including what Zechs assumed to be a hairline skull fracture, but he was definitely alive. And that was making Zech's job just that much more difficult.

With Matthews as injured as he was, Zechs was burdened with two people to keep alive with minimal supplies. Matthews was clearly not going to be of any help at all in the near future, but he was still conscious for most of the day. Zechs had weighed his options carefully when he had realized that the other pilot had survived. Insofar as he could tell, he really had only two choices: heal the man, or kill him. While Zechs had never had an issue with taking a life, and materials were in low supply, there was a distinct possibility that the other pilot actually could come in handy if they were stranded long enough.

If Matthews could heal quickly enough, he could be used to forage for supplies while Zechs stuck with Malthis. The general could not be left out of sight, and having an extra person to send out could be invaluable.

However, until that man was healed, Zechs had the joy of trying to construct a form of communication without tipping off Matthews. There was, theoretically, no one else that the three of them could turn to. The rest of the troops had been slaughtered back at the main headquarters. The substation they were holed up in was apparently still unmanned. They were wanted criminals as far as the rest of the world could tell, and no one would receive them. As such, why bother building a communicator?

For the tenth time that day, Zechs examined the wound on his left wrist. Matthews had tried to help by lighting a kerosene lamp, but his fractured arm had left him so clumsy that instead of lighting it, he had knocked it over and spilled the contents. Embarrassed, he had simply up righted the emergency light and moved it aside. Zechs, having refractured his nose in the crash, had been unable to smell the highly flammable liquid.

When he had tried to light the lamp personally, it exploded.

The former blonde had taken the brunt of it in his arms, and more than a fair amount in his chest and his face. While most of the wounds were superficial, there had been a dangerously deep gash gouged out of his left arm. It had taken several minutes to get the bleeding under control, and since obtaining the injury, Zechs had blacked out twice from the blood loss.

His head was still reeling slightly as he stared at the barely covered injury. If his luck did not start changing for the better quickly and drastically, he was not entirely certain that he would be returning from the mission at all.

/

Heero typed furiously at his computer, his brows furrowed deeply. He did not like it when his superiors kept things from him. He disliked it even more when he suspected they were deliberately trying to fool him. As a soldier, one of the gravest mistakes that can be made was to be caught unaware. Heero Yuy refused to be placed in that situation.

Not again.

From behind him, Quatre softly cleared his throat. "I take it the meeting didn't go well?"

Heero growled, but said nothing official as his continued to pound away at the keys.

The other four occupants of the room exchanged and tense glance. While Heero was hardly a relaxed person by nature, he was rarely wound so tightly that he was reduced to guttural noises as his primary means of communication. They all knew he had gone to ask Une about Noin. All they could assume from his behavior was that the news was not good.

Duo quietly pulled a chair along side his partner in crime. The braided man was showing remarkable restraint as he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he opted to silently look at the work Heero was doing to try to figure it out on his own.

Duo's face got very tense very quickly. "Wait, she's been relocated?"

That certainly captured the room's attention. "Relocated?" Trowa asked. "Has she been officially re-stationed, or is she out on a field assignment?"

"It doesn't say so far," Duo responded, reading Heero's almost frantic work. "All the file says is that she's been relocated, and there's nothing deeper in the system." He sat back in his chair and frowned deeply. "There's nothing at all in the system. Why wouldn't there be anything at all?"

"Zechs' file is also blank," Wufei pointed out. "If she has gone under deep cover, we would not put anything in the system that could signal what she is up to."

"But why would they not tell us that Miss Noin has gone undercover?" Quatre asked. "They told us about Zechs!

Trowa moved his wheelchair beside the blond and nodded. "None of us has been in direct contact with Noin for quite some time," he mentioned. "We have the highest security clearance in the facility other that Une herself. If Noin is undercover, why would she have no potential backup? Why keep us in the dark about it?"

Without any further warning, Duo jumped to his feet. "HILDE!"

Even Heero stopped typing at the outburst. "What about her?"

With wide eyes, Duo looked to his fellow pilots. "Around the time we got our assignments for the Malthis case, Hilde told me that she was going on a trip to try to get us a good deal on stuff for the yard! I've gotten the occasional message from her, but I haven't talked to her directly since the last time we saw Noin!"

"Wait a minute," Wufei responded with a doubtful look on his face, "do you honestly think that your girlfriend is on some secret mission with Noin that none of us have managed to find out about?"

With an evil glare, Duo countered with, "Do you have a better idea?"

"Whoah," Quatre intervened, "let's all calm down for a minute! Duo, you haven't talked with Hilde at all since the incident started?"

"Not once," the braided pilot admitted, though he looked embarrassed to do so.

The blond took a breath before going on. "Duo, call Hilde. See if you can establish contact with her. If you can't, there might actually be a chance that she's somehow involved. If Noin needed backup, and Une didn't want our attention anywhere but on Zechs, then she very well may have contacted an outside source for help. Noin and Hilde are familiar with one another, and Hilde does have a military background."

Duo shook his head as he pulled out his cell phone. "I am such an idiot," he muttered. "How did I not figure this out before?"

"To be fair," Trowa pointed out, "none of us made the connection. You told us Hilde was going out of town and was going to be gone for a couple months, and not one of us questioned it. There was nothing out of the ordinary about her actions."

As the phone began to ring, Heero plugged a cord into it and brought up a program on the computer. "It's faster to trace this way," he muttered, focusing on his screen.

Duo just shook his head again as the phone continued to ring. The entire concept of trying to trace his own girlfriend's phone line was more than slightly disturbing. He understood perfectly well that when someone went deep undercover they were not supposed to tell anyone at all, but they usually shared everything…

It was a surprise to no one when her answering machine picked up. Duo's eyes closed and he squeezed them shut tightly as Heero began typing like a madman, hacking into Hilde's system.

"Hey, babe," the braided pilot said, his voice far calmer than his face, "just calling to say that I miss you. I haven't talked to you in, like, forever! Call me!" With that, he hung up and looked to the Wing pilot for information.

"Shit."

"What is it?" Quatre softly asked.

Heero sat back slightly in his chair and let out a tense sigh. "It's here. Her answering service is in Preventers Headquarters."

"Fantastic," Duo muttered. "My girlfriend is a super secret agent that has run off with another woman on the orders of a third woman. This day can't possibly get any weirder."

Trowa leaned forward in his wheelchair. While his recovery was progressing nicely, the green eyed pilot was still extremely weak and confined to the chair for the vast majority of the day. "If Hilde is undercover by Une's orders," he reasoned, "and Hilde has been able to leave messages for Duo to get in order to avoid suspicion, then it's likely that Une has some means of contacting her directly."

"The messages could easily have been pre-recorded," Heero countered.

Duo shook his head. "No, they couldn't. They had responses to messages I'd been leaving her. She's definitely getting them, so Tro _has_ to be right. She's got access to it, so Une's got access to her."

Heero was already clicking away on the computer again. "I may be able to hack in to Une's usual work computer, but if she's at all as paranoid as she was during the wars, she's probably got an entirely separate system for dealing with something of this nature."

Duo stared almost blankly at the screen, watching the data fly by. "Hilde," he whispered, "where the hell are you?"

/

Hilde stretched out in the living room of the apartment and flattened her torso against her legs. "You know," she called out to the other woman, "I wouldn't mind investing in a cardio machine we could put in here."

"Of course you wouldn't," Noin countered, smirking as she turned a page in her book. "You've got the company credit card."

"Exactly," the younger pilot giggled. "Besides, then you could get a little cardio in, too. I mean, you're doing your Tai-Chi, and that's great, but since you're cooped up in here, it would probably be a good idea."

Noin sighed and lowered her book. It actually was not a half bad idea. She did exercise regularly, but it was not as though she could just go out for a stroll around the block whenever she felt like it. They got out for lunch every once in a while, but they kept their outings limited to no more than once a week. "Are you thinking stairs, tread, or elliptical?"

"Well," Hilde grunted, switching to another stretch, "the stairs probably wouldn't be great for you, and I think it'll bug the crap out of our downstairs neighbors if they hear the pounding of my feet on a treadmill all the time, so probably an elliptical. You interested?"

Before Noin could answer, Hilde's cell phone began to ring. "Since there's only one person other than you with this number, that's probably the boss lady. She probably already found out we were planning on spending a thousand of her dollars and wants to put a stop to it immediately." She flipped her phone open and rolled her eyes. "Hello?"

"Hey, babe," Duo responded in a far too level tone. "What have you been up to?"

Hilde dropped the phone.


	13. Chapter 13

Hilde stared at the wall in front of her, her blood forming to ice in her veins. Her brain seemed to shut down, her mind an absolute blank. All she could hear was a sort of dull buzzing sound, and while she could technically see, her eyes could not focus on anything.

Noin slowly got to her feet, warily eying the girl. "What's wrong?" she softly asked.

The younger woman gave no response of any kind. She seemed absolutely frozen in that moment of time. By her feet lay her cell phone, still on and active. _"Hilde?"_ the familiar voice of the 02 pilot called out. _"Hilde? Can you hear me? Hellooo?"_

That snapped Noin into action. If Duo was on the other end, that meant that the boys had gone out of their way to hunt down their contact information, and were likely tracing the call at that exact moment. Kneeling as fast as her growing body would allow her to, the soldier snatched the phone from the floor.

"Working. Secret. Lose the number," she snapped. Immediately, she tore off the back of the phone and pulled out both the battery and the GPS locator chip. If luck was on their side, she had gotten them out before Heero had managed to track them. If their luck over the past few months was holding true, though, the boys already had a lock on them. "Damn it," she muttered, pulling out her own phone and removing the vital components.

"How did he find me?" Hilde whispered.

Noin growled, heading for the computer. "I'm guessing that Japan allied with America for this little operation," she bit out, turning on her machine.

Hilde shook her head. "No," the younger soldier replied, "I mean why would he even have been looking for me? He should have been too busy with his own mission to waste resources hunting me down when I should be on a routine trip. He shouldn't have had a chance to even attempt this until Zechs and the boys were done with their mission."

"And we would have been contacted if that was the case," Noin concluded, sitting back. There suddenly seemed to be less air in the room. "You're right, something's wrong." Her mind immediately went into overdrive, coming up with anything that might have gone wrong. The mission must have been compromised. Maybe someone's identity did not hold. Maybe they were needing to use a stall technique and Duo's focus drifted. Maybe Zechs was…

It was too terrible a thought for her to truly fathom, but it was the one that screamed loudest in her head. To her, the most logical reason for the other pilots to be available but for Une to not contact Noin was that something had gone horrifically wrong, and Zechs was either dying or dead.

The two remained in silence for a few seconds before Hilde managed to shake it off. "We need to tell Une," she stated quietly.

Noin nodded, remembering her computer. "Yes," she softly agreed, "our mission has been compromised. We need to contact the director immediately."

/

The five Gundam pilots stared at the phone, dumbfounded. Duo had kept it on speakerphone, and they had all heard everything. Hilde had clearly picked up. The phone had been dropped. And Noin's unmistakable voice came on, commanding them to lose the number before going completely offline.

Wufei was the first to find a voice. "Heero, were you able to find…"

"Yes," the Japanese pilot snipped out, writing something down on a notepad. "Colony, city, street, apartment complex, apartment building."

Quatre frowned slightly. "They're in an apartment on a colony?" he questioned.

"Civilian zone," Heero confirmed. "There isn't a military base in a hundred kilometers of their location."

"Any activity at all that we're involved in within the area?" Trowa asked.

Heero clicked away at the keyboard, his eyebrows cinching together at his results. "We theoretically don't have any operations, intel, or any form of activity even remotely close to them. There's nothing there."

"Except the girls," Duo quietly pointed out.

The pilots fell silent again, each one trying to figure out a solution. "Do we have any previous activity in the neighborhood?" Quatre hopefully asked. "Perhaps they were sent on some sort of follow up mission to a past case."

Again, the keyboard clicked, and again, the results were negative. "There's nothing there," Duo repeated shaking his head and clearly frustrated. "Great. My girlfriend has literally disappeared off the face of the Earth and I have no idea why."

Heero got to his feet and began to move for the door. Behind him, Quatre gently asked, "Where are you going?"

When Heero did not respond, Duo got up and joined him. "Wait up!" he called out. "I've got questions for the boss lady, too!"

"As do I," Wufei firmly stated, following the two brunets.

Quatre and Trowa exchanged a glance and shrugged. "Well, if everyone else is going…" Quatre finally responded. He grabbed the handles of his partner's wheelchair and aimed them in the direction of Une's office.

/

Zechs sat in the hollowed out shell of what had been his mobile suit. It was the middle of the night, and Matthews was fast asleep. The former blond used what little light was at his disposal trying once again to form a functional communications device. He had worked on it relentlessly whenever he had the chance, but those moments were few and far between.

He delicately placed his tiny screwdriver down and analyzed his work. If luck managed to fall on his side, what he had should be able to send and receive signals. Tentatively, he turned it over and moved his fingers to turn it on.

"Teran?"

Zechs almost dropped his precious project. Matthews had been dead to the world when he had started his work, but apparently the other man had regained consciousness. Stashing his communicator away, he hopped down from the cockpit of the fallen machine and approached the other pilot.

"Are you in pain?" he immediately asked.

"What?" Matthews asked. "Oh, no. I was just, I don't know, I was alone and a little confused." He rubbed the side of his head and winced. "It took me a minute to figure out where I was, and then I couldn't see you anywhere and I was a little concerned."

Zechs nodded. "Understandable," was the only reply he gave.

Matthews looked over at the broken mobile suit. "What were you doing in there?" he sincerely asked.

"Checking for salvageable parts," the former blond responded. "I know I've been in there before, but you never know what you might have missed."

"Yeah, that's probably a smart idea," the other pilot agreed. "God only knows how long we're going to be here."

A silence fell between them before the less experienced pilot actually began to fidget. "Hey, Teran, can I ask you a question?"

Zechs sat down next to the other man. "Knock yourself out," he replied, half casually and half meaning it.

Matthews glanced up. "Um, why is there a white streak in your hair?"

Zechs froze. For three weeks he had been so focused on keeping the three of them alive and on trying to form an escape plan that the fact that he had to dye his hair had completely left his mind. With no mirrors in their empty compound, he had failed to notice his platinum blond roots had returned. After all that time, each hair had almost a half inch of near white at the base.

There was nothing he could do about it. He had not exactly grabbed a dye pack when he had gone to his work station that fateful morning. There had been no reason to. And there was nothing in the compound that could be used as a substitute. As such, his auburn ruse was giving way, and Zechs quickly tried to think of just how compromised his identity might become.

His nose was broken, and was not likely to be an issue, but everything else was giving way in the wake of the disaster. His contacts were still in, but what little eye solution he kept with him had already been used up. He was going to have to remove them in a matter of days. His build was already returning to its naturally lean state due to his restrictive diet and lack of exercise.

In barely more than another week, it would not be hard to figure out who he was.

Matthews, meanwhile, was confused by his companion's silence. "Teran?" he prodded.

Zechs shook his head slightly. "Sorry about that," he responded, coming up with a cover. "Look, I don't like talking about this, but I started going gray when I was seventeen, alright?"

"Seriously?" Matthews replied. "Oh, tough break on that."

Zechs rolled his eyes. "Thanks."

The more injured pilot yawned, and his eyes began to droop again. "Do you think we're ever going to get out of here?" he asked.

Looking toward his hidden communicator, Zechs nodded. "Yeah," he responded, "I think we will."

Matthews closed his eyes. "But where are we going to go?" the weak man asked, drifting off. "It all got destroyed…"

"We'll get out of here," Zechs assured again, getting to his feet. When no response came, Zechs waited a few moments more to make sure Matthews was truly asleep before heading back to the hollowed out cockpit.

If he did not get them out of there soon, what little hope they had for success would not be coming back.

/

Une sent her response message to Hilde and Noin before powering down that computer. It was the only one connected to a private server she had set up, and was to be used strictly in cases of emergencies. As she locked the laptop away in its hidden compartment, she could clearly hear the footsteps approaching her office. She took her place in her chair and appeared to be focused on some task on her standard computer, awaiting the knock.

She did not hear a knock, but she did hear the unmistakable noise of someone walking face first into a door, followed by a familiar, "Damn it!"

The tall woman rolled her eyes and got to her feet. She flicked the knob on the door and slowly opened it, glaring at the five young men before her. "And the inventor of the lock may now rest happily in his grave," she sarcastically bit out.

"Why is your door locked?" Quatre innocently asked. "I've never heard of you locking your door."

"No secretary," Une swiftly responded, glaring at the blond. "With no one here to monitor, there's no one to keep the riff raff away."

Wufei stood tall, an impossible feat next to their boss, and held his chin high. "Madam Director, we need to know what mission you have sent…"

Une had a hand over the Chinese man's mouth quickly and firmly. "In my office. Now."

She kept her hand clasped over her subordinates mouth as she led the five young men into the room. As soon as Quatre closed the door behind them, she finally let go. "Have you no sense of protocol?" she scolded. "How dare you question a mission without checking for clearance!"

Wufei coughed and wiped his mouth, extremely upset by how he had been handled but understanding that he had been out of line. "It will not happen again, Madam Director."

"But we're here for that reason, Une," Duo firmly stated, walking to the front of the group and dropping all formality. "Noin and Hilde have dropped off the grid. Why?"

Une's eyes narrowed dangerously. "As I already informed Yuy," she angrily explained, "Noin has been sent off on a side mission of the Malthis case. However, as her work is yet to overlap with yours in any way, I have decided to keep her whereabouts private. It is for the sake of mission safety, Maxwell."

Duo glared hard at his boss. "And if it was just Noin, I might buy it," the braided pilot fought back, "but why the hell would you send _my girlfriend_ and send her on a mission? She's not even a member of the agency!"

"She is now," Une affirmed, her temper wearing dangerously thin. "Her background checks and clearance exams were all completed prior to her involvement in the mission. I needed another body there, and I needed someone Noin would trust with her life. The five of you were already on assignment, and it was felt that the former soldier you happen to be dating would be up for the task. Noin approved, she went."

"Well don't you have an answer for everything," the 02 pilot sneered.

Une took an aggressive step closer to the pilot and glared down at him. He might have grown since the days of the war, but she was still taller. "Are you questioning my authority?" the threatened.

Duo opened his mouth to respond, but a calm hand was placed on his shoulder. "Madam Director," Quatre politely intervened, "we mean no disrespect. We are just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Since we were allowed in on the Zechs case, it stood to reason that we would be allowed to know what Miss Noin is up to as well. However," he went on, eying the other pilots, "we do understand that mission safety is always the highest priority, and if you wish for us to stop asking questions, we will."

Wufei, Heero and Duo all glared at the blond, but Quatre had that small twinkle in his eye that signaled that he had an idea. They stood down, allowing Une to dismiss them and left without a fight.

As soon as they returned to their surveillance room, Quatre picked up the notepad Heero had been writing on and smirked. "Link their number to their undercover identities," he commanded. "Une will have them on the move soon, likely to a new colony. They'll have to get through several security points, and their pseudonyms will pop up at checkpoints. We'll also be able to check credit card charges. Tracking them should be simple. We can intercept if necessary."

As Heero began to type in the information he had, Duo gave his blond friend a hug. "Did I ever tell you you're my favorite?" he teased.

Quatre laughed, but the room soon fell silent. They were determined to figure out what Une was hiding from them.

It could not possibly be good.


	14. Chapter 14

Hilde had never moved so fast in her life. She had every scrap of material she and Noin had handled over their stay packed up just as it needed to be in under an hour, an impressive feat. Some of it had been placed on easily transportable luggage, but the vast majority of it had been contained and doused in an accelerant before being deposited in the furnace. As the younger soldier destroyed most of their temporary belongings, Noin gave ever surface a thorough rubdown with a custom made cleanser designed to wipe off fingerprints and destroy DNA. The odds of anyone directly investigating their apartment were not high, but they took no chances. Nothing was to be left behind.

Grateful for their overseer's paranoia, Noin used a set of backup identities to purchase shuttle tickets in the local library. If the boys had found their number, it stood to reason that they had found their identities. Phones and computers could easily be traced, and it would be too easy to track where they were headed if they ordered them in the apartment.

In a total of barely two hours, they were boarded on a shuttle, carrying the absolute bare minimum they needed. Their hair was cut again, Noin lightened hers, and Hilde streaked hers with purples and pinks. Different clothes, different accessories, different hair, different identifications, different credit cards, different location, every little thing had to change.

But they knew that it might not be enough. The boys had found them once, and it was probably only a matter of time before they were located again. All they could do was hope that they could fly under the radar long enough to get by.

As they sat back in the shuttle, neither one of them spoke. Nothing seemed to be going according to plan, and both women were feeling more than a little stress. While neither one said it, a common thought floated in both Hilde and Noin's minds. It was hard enough for them to relocate at the stage they were in, but it was going to be impossible in just a few months. Noin's condition was only going to get more intense, and that was going to be difficult just to move her. Pregnant women in their third trimester were banned from shuttle travel.

The longer the mission took, the harder it was going to get. And there was no telling what toll all that stress could take on that small, unborn being.

They had no idea how they were going to pull it off.

"Tell me you have something."

Heero growled as he continued to hammer away at his keyboard. Duo had been asking for updates every two minutes since he had begun the hunt. "I will let you know when I have something concrete."

"Does that mean that you have some form of lead?" Trowa seriously asked.

Heero did not respond. Whatever Noin and Hilde were up to, it had to be big. They had gone to ground, and they had done an excellent job disappearing. He had managed to get a hold of their aliases, but those names had not popped up anywhere. There had been no phone or computer use of any kind since Duo had made the call. They were apparently making damn sure that they would not be located a second time.

Scooting his chair a little closer to his Japanese friend, Quatre let out a gentle sigh. "Is there anything that any of us could do to assist you?" he sincerely asked.

Though his fingers did not slow down, Heero did consider the offer. "I'll keep working finding a way back into Une's system," he responded. "She's changed it just since this morning, and it's going to take a little time to get back in. While I'm doing that, you hunt down everything you can about those identities."

Duo was already on a computer. Several minutes passed in silence, save the sound of the clicking keys echoing in the room. Duo let out a low whistle. "Man, these guys are good," he said. "I haven't narrowed down which one had which identity. I don't know how they did it, but I can't find a picture of either of them. They're good. They have full frickin' backgrounds here. Birth certificates, school records, full family histories..." He typed away a while longer, muttering something unclear about a trace in the system and backtracking a file.

"Nothing new to us," Trowa responded. "We used to do that all the time. It was how we kept our cover."

Suddenly, Duo went completely stiff. "Oh, shit..."

Everyone else in the room turned their focus to the braided man. "What is it?" Wufei asked.

Duo slumped back against his chair, his hand covering his mouth. For the time being, he was rendered utterly speechless.

Since their companion apparently was incapable of delivering the information he had gathered, the others leaned in and peered at the screen. Systematically, the eyes of every pilot began to bug out.

"By Allah," Quatre whispered.

"Great Nataku," Wufei stammered.

"Damn," Trowa smoothly spoke.

Heero did not say a word, opting to only place a hand on his overwhelmed comrade.

After almost two painful, awkward minutes of silence, Quatre cleared his throat. "I wonder which one of them is pregnant..."

/

Zechs slumped against the inside of the cockpit. He was running out of everything. Food, water, time, even the strength to do seemingly basic things was fading fast.

Not willing to risk being caught, Zechs had waited for Matthews to fall asleep before clocking him violently in the temple. It had the potential to be fatal to the other man, but it was necessary. Matthews had to remain completely out if Zechs was going to be successful.

Praying that his device would work, Zechs powered up his hand made machine and waited for the telltale sound of it coming online.

"Here goes everything," the former blond muttered. Using the code that Preventers used, he typed out all the information that was needed. He repeated it several times, more than a little desperate. If his signal did not get picked up, and by the people who had to get it, there was a very real likelihood that he would never get home.

After several minutes, Zechs powered down and hid his communicator. If given another opportunity, after it got the chance to charge, he would take it. In all the time he had spent in solitude, working on his project, Zechs had been granted plenty of time to figure out the odds of his survival.

Without access to the mainstream equipment, Zechs was unable to ensure that his signal was on a mainstream channel. The odds of someone being in the exact right place at the exact right time with the exact right equipment and the exact right knowledge to get his words to the headquarters were grim at best.

He was not a sentimental man by any stretch of the imagination, but in the quiet darkness of his prison, he could admit to himself that he was truly starting to feel lost. When the entire ordeal had begun, he had managed to keep even the most vulnerable parts of his mind at bay, assured that, like all other times, he would find a way to freedom.

But as days had bled together, that little voice in the back of his head had gathered volume. What had once been fleeting thoughts that maybe, just maybe, he would nit find an escape, it had started to scream all day long.

Every cold, miserable day that passed increased that sensation of hopelessness, and even as he came down from sending out the distress call, he could not stop the sense of futility that flooded his soul.

It was oddly disturbing, but Zechs had found himself more and more feeling like a lost child. He wanted to go home. He wanted to sleep in his bed. He wanted to eat his favorite foods again. And more than anything else, he wanted to be back with the one person he called family.

He prayed he would make it home someday, but he was almost certain he never would.

/

"Wake up, honey."

Noin groaned, not particularly caring for whomever it was who chose to interrupt her blissful slumber. During the last hour of their flight, the pilot had miraculously managed to drift off and get some sorely needed rest. Being in her second trimester, Noin's body was draining everything she had to feed her unborn child. The baby was growing at a rapid rate, and it was leaving her constantly exhausted.

Hilde felt bad for waking up her undercover sister. She knew perfectly well that Noin had been needing far more rest than she had been getting, and that it was going to take a toll. However, the shuttle was landing, and it would not do to have Noin sleep into the next flight.

"Go away," the senior pilot moaned, swatting away the younger woman.

Brushing her newly colored hair away from her eyes, Hilde grabbed Noin by the arm and actually hauled the taller woman fully to her feet. "Come on, you lazy bum," she grunted, shouldering the weight of her pregnant companion, "we need to get going."

Noin groaned again, but she finally relented to the fact that she did, in actuality, need to wake up. Waking up had become a miserable experience. It was something that had never been an issue before her pregnancy. In fact she was normally a decent enough morning person. However, ever since she had become with child, Noin had been dreading the sensation of raising her eyelids and greeting the world.

Even though she was exhausted, though, she knew she could not wallow in her misery. They needed to get moving quickly if there was going to be any hope at all of keeping ahead of the boys. They had both spent enough time with them to know that the boys would never give up on something once they were involved. The two women had done everything they could to destroy any trace of their former lives in the apartment. Computer files, both on their own systems and those that they would have been entered into, had been viciously attacked by their program and wiped out any trace of them.

Adjusting her weight and gaining her balance, Noin grabbed her bag out of the overhead compartment. "What car do we have?" she softly asked.

"Minivan," the shorter woman responded, rolling her eyes. "After all, that's the best thing for impending motherhood."

Noin groaned again. "Great," she whined. "I have gone from the top of my game to boring old lady overnight."

"Crybaby," Hilde teased, ducking fast enough to avoid the duffle bag that was swung at her head. "Now, now, none of that. Can't be putting too much stress on you, sweetie."

"I am going to murder you," the elder woman growled, storming out of the shuttle. Being hidden away from the world she knew had been bad enough, but being forced to continue running was downright unbearable. There was still no word about her lover, and to top it all off, Noin's once flawless form was turning into a funhouse. It was more than enough to keep her in a sour, if not childish, mood.

Hilde just laughed as she followed Noin through the terminal. She was not happy, not even optimistic, but if there was anything she had ever learned from Duo it was that keeping a smile on your own face could help all around you get through a hard time. Even if things were starting to get harder than they had anticipated, she was determined to see them through to the end. She had been assigned to assist and protect Noin, regardless of cost, and that was exactly what she was going to do.

Quietly, the two women made their way to their new home. Until they received further orders, all they could do was pray that everything would turn out all right in the end.

/

Zechs leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes. Between the fatigue, the lack of food, and the blood loss from the wound on his wrist, he was beyond his limits. It had been three days. Too much time had gone by without so much as the barest sign that someone, anyone, had heard his call.

Mathis' makeshift life support system would only be able to function for a couple days more, but by that point, Zechs doubted that it would be worth it. The general had been in such critical condition for so long, without even remotely proper care, was likely brain dead. Zechs sincerely doubted that even if they were rescued in the next couple of days the general would ever wake up.

All the effort he had gone through to secure the man was all for nothing. Being stranded in that abandoned station, with no means of escape and no access to food, all of it was pointless. After the biological weapon had been deployed, he could have just gone home and called it a day for all it was worth.

As he dropped into unconsciousness, Zechs tried to salvage that last scrap of hope he had. But his final though echoed maliciously through his brain, driving him to a miserable attempt at rest:

_I will die a worthless death_


	15. Chapter 15

Duo was pacing around the room, his hands fidgeting behind his back. He had been that way for almost twenty minutes, and only Quatre held on to hope that the braided man would respond to vocal prompting.

"You don't know that it's Hilde," the blond pointed out.

Duo gave no signal at all that he had heard his friend, turning around to continue his never ending pattern on the floor.

"And even if it is," Quatre went on, "a child is a blessing! Why, you shouldn't be worrying about this, you should be celebrating with us!"

Again, Duo offered no verbal response, though there was a noticeable twitch along his fingers. It was the only indication he gave that he was actually processing his companion's words.

"Tell you what," Quatre firmly said, getting to his feet and grinning broadly, "how about as soon as we get a chance, we all go out for drinks together to celebrate this blessed event? I, for one, am very happy for you, Duo!"

"I thought you were trying to get him to calm down," Trowa responded from his chair. "And that it might not be Hilde."

Duo groaned and his pace picked up. "We are so not ready for this…"

Quatre shot Trowa a furious gaze. "Well, I am!" he shot back. "Look, we don't know which one of them it is, but I say that either way we celebrate. Besides, I want him to know that this could be a wonderful thing for him, in case it is Hilde."

From across the room, Wufei leaned forward and pondered something. "Everyone about to go on a major mission is required to go through a thorough physical before they gain clearance, correct?"

Duo's pacing slowed down, but he still did not face his friends. "Yeah..."

"Then it stands to reason," Wufei slowly went on, "that regardless of which one is with child, Une would have known about it in advance."

"You're right," Trowa agreed. "She definitely would have held knowledge of something like that."

Wufei frowned. "Then why send either of them on this mission?" he asked. "It is foolishness to send a pregnant female on a mission."

"You think it is foolishness to send any female on a mission," Heero countered, not looking away from the computer screen.

Scowling and suppressing the urge to throw something at his Japanese friend, Wufei went on. "In any event, any soldier with a preexisting condition is automatically disqualified. It is a matter of security, not to mention common sense."

Slowly, Duo turned around, a stunned look on his face. "That's the mission," he quietly said.

The other men in the room paused. "What?" Quatre asked.

"The mission," Duo repeated. "We couldn't find it in Une's system, but that has to be it!"

Trowa nodded along, softly adding, "Makes sense."

"What makes sense?" Quatre responded.

"The pregnancy," Trowa explained, "is the key to the mission. The two of them must be together because one is pregnant and the other is on protection detail."

The blond's eyes lit up as he fully grasped the idea. "The pregnancy is a risk to someone," he concluded. "That's why they disappeared completely."

Duo's eyes widened. "I wasn't assigned to the undercover mission," he realized, "so there's no reason to shelter Hilde! I'm here!"

All five young men grew silent, broken only by Trowa quietly saying, "It's Noin."

/

Hilde hauled the last box up the stairs to their new apartment. The young woman was coated in sweat, having done all of the heavy lifting and the vast majority of the moving on her own. As soon as they had a couch in the living room, Noin had lain down and taken a much needed nap, leaving the younger woman on her own.

Grunting slightly, Hilde placed the final box on the kitchen floor. It had taken the better part of the afternoon, but she had just about finished getting their new home set up. It was tough, implementing a full relocation within twenty-four hours, but it was nothing she could not handle.

She was apprehensive, though. Again and again she thought about Duo, and how he had found her earlier. Their security had been compromised, and would never be fully claimed again. She was certain that the boys were already aware that she and Noin had moved on, and they were probably already looking for them. Hilde figured that they would be lucky if they could stay at their location for three days, and odds were they'd be moving again in one.

They could not maintain that pace forever, and Hilde knew it. If they could not get the boys off their trail soon, they were going to run out of options, fast. She kept her fingers crossed that whatever mission the boys were on would be taken care of quickly, because things were getting extremely difficult.

Hearing her companion shifting on the couch, Hilde shifted her attention. "You awake over there?" she softly asked.

"No," Noin grumbled, "I'm fast asleep, having a glorious dream, in my own bed."

"Lucky," Hilde responded, opening the box. "Sounds like you're really comfy."

"And unbelievably so," the pregnant woman returned, turning over to face the younger woman. "Now, if you don't mind, you're disturbing my delusions of grandeur."

Hilde laughed and reached into the box, placing her hand firmly on something. "Well, would her majesty mind if Cinderella turned on the radio? See, the singing mice and birds called in sick this morning..."

Noin threw one of the couch pillows at Hilde, but she did smile as she did it. "Fine, but if you sing along, I will lock you the tower!"

"Well, we can't have that, now, can we?" Hilde teased. "Very well, I promise not to sing along." The young woman plugged in the small appliance and turned it on, quickly locating some suitable background noise as she finished up her work.

/

Zechs slowly opened his eyes, watching the other two men lazily. Fatigue, exhaustion, and hunger had finally caught him. He barely had the strength to hold up his own head. His body was slumped against the cold metal wall, and his strength had utterly left him.

There was some dehydrated food left, but only enough for a poor meal for one man. Both he and Matthews were in need of nutrients, and whether the other man knew it or not, Matthews had eaten his last meal. Zechs was no martyr, and his survival came ahead of Matthews'. The other man might have been helpful in prosecuting the general, but with Malthis' impending death, Matthews had been dropped from potentially helpful to liability.

The former blond sighed quietly, contemplating whether or not to shoot the other man. While Matthews was a liability, Zechs still felt a little uncertain about executing an unsuspecting man. The other pilot had no idea that Zechs was who he was, and held no clue that he was in the presence of his enemy. Killing a soldier in the line of duty was one thing, but shooting an injured man on the floor was extremely distasteful.

However, executing the man personally would likely be far kinder than the likely alternative. That one final bit of food was going to Zechs, and combining the lack of food and Matthews' injuries, the loyalist was doomed to die a very slow, excruciating death from starvation.

Zechs glanced down at his sidearm. He still had the gun he had carried with him at Malthis' base, and there were still several rounds within. Taking out Matthews would be quite simple. It would be quite easy to wait for the man to fall asleep and pull the trigger. But the idea of killing the man is such way just did not sit well with him.

Perhaps he did not have to make a decision just yet. There was still an outside chance that someone would hear the call and come to assist them. The odds were not high, but they still existed. Matthews could get by for about twenty-four hours more before the true suffering would begin. If no one had responded by then, Zechs would put the man out of his misery.

Briefly, Zechs considered some alternative methods to survival that might be implemented. While the mere thought of it made his stomach want to revolt, he could not deny that there was a distinct possibility that in order to prolong his own life, it might be necessary to consume the remains of one of the other men. The concept alone horrified him, and he honestly was not certain if he would be willing to take such a measure. Survival was important, but food was useless if it could not be kept down.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Zechs closed one of his colored eyes. His lenses were driving him crazy. It felt like they were starting to fuse with his eyeballs. With nothing but questionable water to hydrate them with, they had reached the end of their lives and were more than ready to be discarded. Leaving them in any longer ran a risk of permanently damaging his vision, and it was a risk he could no longer run. Lifting his one good arm, he slowly and painfully removed the dried out lenses.

He blinked several times, allowing his eyes the opportunity to adjust. It had been quite a while since he had allowed his eyes to function on their own, and while it took a while to fully adjust, it was extremely refreshing. With minimal effort, he flicked the useless lenses to the ground.

Crystal blue orbs glanced around the room as he ran through the statistics of his potential survival. It was not a comforting thought. Given that someone would have to be on the same frequency, at the exact right moment, and being fully aware of what the Preventer codes were did not stand in high in his favor.

Closing his eyes again, he slumped against the wall. What little hope he had was fading. Fast.

/

Hilde adjusted her headband, grumbling about the bangs that refused to leave her eyes. Cleaning and organizing were hardly her favorite activities, a surprise to no one who knew where she normally lived. Between the two of them, Duo had always been the more organized. The braided man, as laid back as he was, could be oddly meticulous about things and even bordered on neurotic cleaning patterns. He had his own ways for doing things and did not seem to appreciate it when someone else tried to 'help'. As such, Duo would keep the yard organized and Hilde handled the business affairs. It suited both of them just fine.

Without her partner there, though, Hilde found the cleaning of just about everything left up to her, particularly the more intense jobs. And trying to clean the grout out of the kitchen counter tiles with her hair dancing in her eyes was not proving to be an easy task.

"Damn it," she grumbled, trying again to keep her bangs caught under the band, "get out of my way or get cut off!"

"You say that to Duo a lot?"

Hilde jumped slightly before turning to her pregnant friend. "You were supposed to be asleep and enjoying your delusions of grandeur!" the younger woman accused.

Noin shrugged, entering the kitchen completely. "Tried to," she admitted, stretching out her sore back, "but Cinderella was singing too loudly with the birds and the mice for me to really enjoy it."

Blushing, Hilde turned back to the grout. "Sorry," she apologized. "You know those darn mice love to belt out a good tune."

"Sure they do," Noin responded, rolling her eyes. "Listen, I don't mind you singing, but could you please find a better station to listen to as you clean?"

"Oh, sure," Hilde quickly responded, dropping her tools and making a beeline for the radio. "You know, you could have told me this when I first turned it on."

Noin shrugged. "Yes, but I thought I'd try to be nice to you and let you do your own thing. I know that the last couple weeks have not been the best as far as my moods have been concerned, and I thought I owed it to you."

With a laugh, the younger woman began to play with the small dial on the radio. "Well, that was very sweet of you," she sincerely responded. "Do you have a preference?" It felt like she had already scanned every station, but until Noin told her otherwise, she would just keep going all the way up and all the down her options.

"Just not whatever the hell it was you were just listening to," Noin replied with a chuckle. "That was not music, that was just noise."

Hilde gave an overly dramatic eye roll. "Honestly, some people just have no taste at all." She went back to the knob and fiddled with it more. "I still have no idea what the stations are on this colony, so this could take a while. Last time I was looking in the same range my favorite acoustic music was on back home and I ended up with something that was a bizarre combination of gangster rap, classical, and jazz. It was…odd."

Chuckling, Noin grabbed a snack and stood next to the younger woman. "You know, I'm a little curious to hear just how strange that sounds. Think you could find it again?"

"Wow, someone likes to live dangerously," Hilde teased. Turning the dial back where it had been, her eyes narrowed as she concentrated on the sound. "Come on, that station had to be around here somewhere…"

Without any warning, Noin's hand shot out and fiercely grabbed Hilde's wrist. The smaller woman froze, and she stared apprehensively at her pregnant partner. "Noin?" she hesitantly asked.

"Get me paper and a pen. Now."

"What…?"

"NOW!"

Hilde did not need to be told a third time. She made a beeline for the nearest scrap to write on and grabbed a pen that had been on the table, handing them over to Noin without delay. She watched, still slightly stunned, as the older woman began to frantically scrawl something out.

Neither one of them spoke for several minutes as Noin continued to write. Slowly, Hilde tried to inch her way over to see what the other woman was writing, but she could not see around Noin's remarkably fast moving hands.

"Get Une on the line," the senior pilot suddenly commanded.

The younger of the pair opened her mouth to ask why, but quickly closed it and decided to simply do as she was told. Contacting Une was not something Hilde particularly enjoyed doing, especially given that woman's occasionally extremely erratic behavior, but she recognized Noin's tone as one that left no room for error.

"Securing the line," she calmly stated, getting everything set up. Hilde was fairly certain that any contact toward Preventers was going to be picked up immediately by the boys, but if they needed the boss lady, then they needed the boss lady. Another minute passed before the young woman got up from her seat and offered it to Noin. "It's connecting to her now."

Noin took her seat and stared at the video screen, watching impatiently for her commander to come online. "Ma'am," she quickly said the moment the other woman appeared, "I found something."


	16. Chapter 16

"Noin, this better be damn important," Une quietly hissed at the monitor. "You, more than most, understand what you are risking."

"I know," the younger woman firmly agreed, "but this is of high urgency. I received a transmission that was sent in our coding system of highest importance."

Une sat up a little straighter, one of her eyebrows twitching slightly from the stress of the entire situation. "How, might I ask, did you manage to receive a transmission? I do not recall sending you with any equipment that should be able to pick one up."

Noin grabbed the radio from the countertop. "It was not over an encrypted communications line," she quickly pointed out. "It was on a standard radio frequency. We heard it in the background while searching for a station."

"Very well," Une reluctantly accepted, thought extremely concerned with a coded message being put out where the general public could intercept it. She grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper. "You may relay your message."

Noin looked down at the note she had made. "Mission potential failure, stop, target fading, stop, send immediate backup, stop." She looked up at the screen. "It also offered coordinates."

Une continued to write, making very careful notation of the location Noin gave her. She had realized that the message was, most likely, sent by her lost agent. Une kept her head down a few seconds longer, making sure that her emotionless mask was in place before turning her gaze to the other woman. "Thank you," she firmly told the younger female. "This will be most valuable to us. I appreciate the intel, but I am sure you understand why you need to…"

"Get off the line immediately, I know," Noin finished up. "Good luck, Commander."

"And to you," Une answered, signing off. She was on her feet before the monitor had completely turned off, heading straight for where her remaining top pilots were. The information she had needed to be delivered face to face, and she knew that time was of the essence. Several of her employees gawked as she stormed by, her very presence projecting danger and scaring them out of her way. Not one of them tried to so much as smile in her direction.

She barged into the room that the boys had been holed up and slammed the door behind her. "Stop what you are doing immediately. I have a new assignment that requires your full attention."

Four of the young men looked at her, but Heero continued away at the computer. He was so close to breaking that last layer that he could practically taste it, and getting Heero Yuy to stop in the middle of a mission was nigh impossible.

Une, however, was not even slightly in the mood for it. Without bothering to ask again for attention, she marched across the room and yanked out the power cords from the wall. "Now, Yuy!"

Cobalt eyes narrowed dangerously at the commander, but Une was hardly a flappable woman. Glaring him down, Une held up her notepad. "I think we found Zechs."

"Hot damn!" Duo shouted, pumping his fist in the air. "Let's go pick the guy up and get my girlfriend's hot ass back here!"

Une rolled her eyes. "Very appropriate, Maxwell," she bit out. She tossed the pad with the coordinates to Wufei, keeping a stern eye on all the young men in the room. "Understanding that I will be having a word with the five of you later about your deliberate disregard for my orders and trying to sneak information behind my back, I need at least three of you go there as soon as humanly possible."

Duo was already shrugging on his jacket, tossing his long braid behind him. "I'm in!" he eagerly announced, making a break for the door. "I'll go warm up the engine!"

Keeping her hands kept fisted at her sides, she looked at the other four. "Which two of you are going to go keep an eye on him?" she demanded.

As Heero grumbled and walked out the door, not bothering to directly volunteer, Trowa looked over his shoulder to his partner. "You go," he calmly stated. "I am going to be fine here, and you had to sit the last one out."

"Are you sure?" the blond gently asked.

"Yes," Trowa insisted. "And you damn well better come back from this mission in better condition than I did from the last one."

Une grabbed the blond by the shoulder and hauled him to his feet. "Be sentimental later," she ordered, guiding him for the door. "Yuy is already halfway to the hangar, and God only knows where Maxwell is at this point. Get going. Now."

Quatre did not wait to be told again. Une was using that tone that usually came right before she pulled a gun on someone, and given her history, there was a halfway decent chance that if threatened you with it, she would shoot you with it.

Une turned to head back to her office, but she paused, turning back to the remaining two soldiers. Glaring furiously at Yuy's work station, she went back to his corner and grabbed the cables for his computer. She snatched every single one of them and took them with her, trying to keep the Japanese pilot from trying to hack into her files any further.

Wufei coolly watched the woman leave, ensuring that she was gone before getting to his feet. He opened up a cabinet, slid back a hidden panel, and pulled out spare computer cables. Wufei's expression was neutral as he [lugged the machine in with the backup cords, but the barest hint of a smirk formed as he turned the computer on and picked up right where Yuy left off.

/

Noin sighed as she leaned back against her seat. "Well," she finally said, "that was certainly unexpected."

"Yeah," Hilde agreed, brushing her dyed bangs away from her eyes. "But you know what this means, don't you?"

"Yeah," Noin groaned, getting to her feet, "I know. I'll start packing up the bedroom, you take the kitchen."

With a huff, Hilde nodded and glared at the kitchen. Her beautiful kitchen, the one she had spent so much time cleaning to perfection and had been planning on at least getting to _use_, needed to be packed up. As Noin walked out of the room, Hilde launched the brush she had been cleaning the counter with to the floor. "I swear to God, when this is all over, I am going to sucker punch every one of those bastards who keep trying to track us down!"

"I'm helping you do that!" Noin called from the bedroom. "I say Heero gets hit twice, since he's probably the ring leader of this."

Hilde snorted, grabbing one of the boxes she had just collapsed and a roll of duct tape. "Oh, I'm not ruling out my obnoxious other half," she returned. "I'm willing to bet that his scrawny ass has something to do with this."

Emerging from the bedroom, Noin leaned against the doorframe. "How much do you think they know?" she asked, her voice calm and serious.

"Don't know," Hilde grimly replied, putting the box back together. "They found us at least once, and there's no way to know how much they found before that without leading them straight to us. God willing they don't know too much, but with our luck…"

"Then they might know everything," Noin bit out, pushing off from the wall. "Damn it."

The box completed, Hilde began to fill it with the objects she had just barely taken out. "There's still a chance that all they managed to find was our location," she pointed out, though her expression was less than hopeful. "I ran the program to delete all of our data as soon as we found out. If the first thing they noticed was location, then the program could have wiped everything else before they had a chance to get to it. We were out of there and had everything new going pretty fast."

With a sad sigh, Noin gently rubbed the growing bump of her belly. "I don't want him to find out this way," she told the other woman. "I want to be able to tell him myself, face to face."

"And you will," Hilde told the senior pilot as she continued to pack. "Even if, God forbid, the boys did manage to find out, and even if they have all earned a sound beating from each of this for their nosey activities, I trust them to keep their big mouths shut around Zechs. They're at least honorable to do that."

Noin shook her head. "Are you sure about that?" she asked. "Heero, Wufei, and Trowa are antisocial enough to keep quiet, but Duo or Quatre? With good news?"

Hilde grimaced, keeping her back to the other woman. She had honestly thought the same thing, but she was trying to keep Noin from getting too stressed out. High stress, minimal sleep, and constant moving were going to end up affecting the pregnancy. Hilde wanted to do everything in her power to keep Noin healthy. Pregnancy complications could endanger not only the unborn child, but the mother to be as well.

"They'll be cool," she assured, lying through her teeth. "I know the two of them can have big mouths, but even if they know about the baby, they're smart enough to figure out that Zechs doesn't know yet and would never take that away from you. Talkative, yes. Malicious, no."

Noin was not sure she bought the explanation, but she knew that either way, there was nothing she could do about it. She turned and went back to the bedroom, packing up quietly. As she began to put boxes back together, she thought about her lover and how much she missed him. She wanted nothing more than to be laying in their bed, wrapped in his arms, with his hand resting on the swell of her stomach as they rested. To be home, and at peace, with their little forming family seemed like such a wonderful dream.

But so far, that image was only a dream. Since finding out about the pregnancy, she had not had even one communication with the father to be. With him out on a deep cover assignment, she did not even know where he was or how he was doing. Was he even alright? What if something had gone wrong with the mission? Why was the mission not over yet, and just how long could Zechs keep his identity a secret?

Would she even get to see him again before she gave birth?

The thought had floated through her mind on more than one occasion since Hilde's arrival. It was bad enough that she was going to be obviously pregnant the next time she saw him, but the thought that Zechs' childe could be born before he came home genuinely scared Noin a little bit. It was a hell of a thing to tell someone. How would she even start that conversation? Hey, honey, how was the office? Oh, by the way, your son's in the other room and needs a diaper change, could you take care of that?

Shaking her head, Noin finished filling the box she was working on and moved on to the next one. Maybe it would be for the best if Zechs found out before she could tell him. Maybe things would just be easier that way.

How was she going to face him? It was not as though she thought he would be unhappy about the news. In fact, he would probably be quite happy with it. However, slamming someone with news like that was never easy, and the longer they waited, the worse it was going to be.

"Oh, Zechs," she quietly said, finishing the second box and moving for a third, "where are you?"

/

"Come on, you slow pokes!" Duo shouted, starting the engine of their shuttle. "Get it in gear and let's go!"

Quatre jogged into the cockpit and frowned. "Duo, we're going as fast as we can," he explained. "We're almost done with the preflight checklist…"

"The shuttle's fine, let's go!" the braided man hollered, powering up the remaining systems. "Come on, come on! We gotta go!"

With an extremely indignant look on his face, Heero entered the front of the shuttle. He glared at his friend, but refused to speak to him as he took his seat. "Quatre," he instructed, ignoring Duo to the best of his abilities, "tell the control station that we're ready to take off at any time."

Quatre glanced between the two dark haired pilots and shook his head. He actually had to suppress a groan as he realized that he was going to be caught between the two of them for what promised to be a shuttle flight of silent treatments and death threats. "I'm on it," he replied, putting on his headset and following through.

In what felt like an eternity to Duo, they were cleared and on their way. As they set their coordinates, Quatre tried to break the ice. "This is very exciting, isn't it?" he hopefully asked. "I wonder how Une found him."

"We don't know that it's him," Heero pointed out, keeping his eyes straight ahead. "Une gave us coordinates and nothing more. This could end up being a meaningless journey."

"Well, thank you for that, Captain Buzzkill," Duo retorted, settling his hands behind his head. "Don't you think Une would have been pretty damn sure of it before sending _us_ out?"

When Heero did not offer an immediate response, Quatre sighed. True to what he had suspected, it appeared that Heero was refusing to talk directly to their braided comrade. "Heero," he calmly began, "it seems unlikely that Une would waste the time and resources to send us on this mission if she was not at least fairly certain that Zechs would be there."

"Not really," the Japanese pilot countered. "We're the only ones that know Zechs is missing. There is no one else she could send to check it out without running the risk of undermining the entire mission. It had to be us either way."

While Quatre nodded, Duo stuck his tongue out at his partner. "You're just pouting because I yelled at you to haul your scrawny ass faster."

Once again, Heero remained silent, his eyes never leaving the front window. He refused to so much as look in Maxwell's direction. Sitting between them, poor Quatre sighed again and shook his head.

It was going to be a long trip…


	17. Chapter 17

Une grunted as she closed her large door behind her. It had been God only knows how long since she had last eaten a proper meal or gotten a full night's rest, and it was starting to take a toll on her. Keeping that temper of hers in check was getting harder by the hour, and if those damn boys did not start following orders and stop trying to hunt Noin down, she was going to get fed up and shoot one of them in the head.

The tall woman closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying a few seconds of peace and tranquility before getting back to work. Once upon a time she had attempted to take up proper meditation, but she had quickly learned that she never went any real amount of time without interruption, and that her mood and temper were infinitely worse when being interrupted from that than they ever were naturally. As such, she had learned to take what few moments she could for calming purposes. Sometimes, it was only those precious moments that kept her from fully returning to her former self.

As her seven second break ended, Une pushed off from the door and strode to one of her office cabinets. She rarely opened that particular one, barely needing what was inside of it, but she found that she sorely needed it that day. With a firm grasp, she pulled out a small second coffee maker, plugging it in and getting it working as quickly as humanly possible. The one she normally kept in her office was only designed to make two cups at a time, and while the other did not fare any better, it allowed her to keep the flow of caffeine steady. By that point in the game, it was caffeine alone that was moving her, and it would probably stay that way for a while.

The coordinates sent by Noin were a blessing Une was unbelievably grateful for. Without them, they had literally had no leads at all on either Zech's whereabouts or the status of his mission. While the news was not the best the woman could have hoped for, it was more than she thought she would get. At least they had been able to narrow down where to search, and if she was not mistaken, Une believed that the end of the mission was finally in sight.

As she poured the slightly cooled contents from the first coffee pot into her mug, Une shook her head, trying to wake herself up a little more. Missions had been so much more fun when she had only ever given a damn about Treize. As long as she kept him happy, she had no problem doing anything and everything necessary to see him succeed. She had held no personal friends, and that had suited her just fine. Friends slowed you down. Friends got in your way. Friends wanted help. For Une, there were no friends, only subordinates and Mister Treize. Life had been simpler then. Bloodier, but simpler.

But now she had friends and personal connections, and while she truly did treasure them, they were as much the nuisance she had always believed them to be. Keeping Noin secluded for the safety of the mission was one thing, but the amount of time she spent worrying about the other woman was seriously cutting in to her own work time. Une really did worry about the younger woman, and even more for that unborn child. Noin's constant moving and high levels of stress could not possibly mean anything good for the babe, and Une often found herself worrying about the long term effects this mission would put on that new and budding family.

With a growl, Une slammed her mug down on her desk, only mildly caring about the lukewarm liquid that splashed out and onto her hand. "God damned emotions!" she shouted, thankful for her soundproofed doors. "That's it! The next person to piss me off is getting shot!"

/

"You almost done?" Hilde gently asked, leaning against the doorframe.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Noin nodded. The place had been packed and they were ready to leave, but a wave of nausea had slammed in to the senior pilot and ceased their flight. She had been leaning down, getting sick almost constantly for half an hour, and she felt miserable. She was not sure how much of the sensation was caused by just the pregnancy and how much was the added stress, but the end result was not pretty.

The worst appeared to be over, though, and Noin was starting to feel well enough to move. There was a taxi waiting for them outside, and Hilde had just finished loading what they were taking with them into it. Using every ounce of willpower she had, Noin got to her feet, forcing what little remained in her system to stay down. She took the glass of water from Hilde's hand, not even needing to look to know it was there, and rinsed her mouth out as best she could. It would not make the taste disappear completely, but it was better than nothing.

"Thanks," the taller woman finally answered, wiping the corner of her mouth with her sleeve. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Hilde chuckled and took the empty glass from her friend, knowing perfectly well it would be in the dumpster in five minutes. "My guess is you'd have some very gnarly breath," the younger woman teased. She offered out her other hand and quirked her head slightly to the side before adding, "Mint?"

With the barest hint of a smile, Noin took the offered prize. It was not much, but again, it was better than nothing. "I don't suppose you have any…" She did not even have to finish her sentence before Hilde handed her a box of crackers. "Kid, when this is all done, I'm putting you in for a promotion."

Hilde laughed. "And if this weren't just a temp gig for me, that'd be great," she answered. "Listen, sweetie, we gotta get going." With a gentle touch, she guided her charge to the front door. "Just let me know if you're going to lose it again, okay?"

"I find that fair," Noin chuckled. "Just try not to make me laugh right now and I think we'll be fine."

The mouth that had been poised with a smart remark closed before anything could come out. Between her own vibrant personality and life with Duo, Hilde found it hard to resist the opportunity to make someone smile. Keeping that urge suppressed was going to be difficult, but if that was what it took to keep Noin from getting sick again, Hilde would do it.

The taxi ride was completely silent, save the attempts the driver had at starting up a conversation. Noin felt too sick to talk, and the vibrations of the car were by no means helping. And while Hilde would normally have been more than game to chat up a driver, everything that came to mind had a humorous undertone and ran the risk of making poor Noin's situation even worse. So the two sat in silence, and the jovial driver soon gave up on his attempts to converse.

They arrived at the shuttle port soon enough, and Noin thanked the driver and paid him as Hilde unloaded what few bags they were taking. Two duffels each held the things they would take from location to location. Everything else was ordered by an alias and delivered to the new home, to either be enjoyed by the ladies as they stayed or incinerated by them when they left. So far they had left an impressive amount of destroyed furniture in their wake, and they were not looking forward to yet again having to set up shop.

Though Noin was still a very capable woman, Hilde knew it would be faster for them if she took all the bags herself and allowed her nauseous friend to continue nibbling on crackers. Without so much as asking if it was okay, the former soldier shouldered their luggage and set a near brutal pace for the ticket station. Without the driver being aware of it, Hilde had used his phone to order their shuttle passes under their new names. That way, even if the boys managed to track down where they had been and which cab they had been in, they could not trace it to them. The boys could only get as far as the cab driver, and the man would probably have so many fare that he would not be able to describe two fairly commonplace women with enough detail to prove it was them.

Almost bouncing up to the gate, Hilde swiped her newly shaded dark auburn bangs out of her eyes. "Hi," she cheerfully greeted the clerk. "My sister and I are here to check in."

The clerk nodded and began typing into her computer, checking the identification the young woman offered. "Yes, I see right here that we have two first class seats ready and waiting for you and your sister."

Noin raised an eyebrow at that statement. First class tickets at the last minute? Those were going to cost a pretty penny, and Une was not going to be happy about that. However, as it was too late to do anything about it, Noin decided to quietly let it slide. Besides, the idea of having comfortable first class seats instead of cramped coach seats highly appealed to the pregnant woman.

As the clerk printed out their final boarding passes, she glanced over Hilde's shoulder to Noin. "I know you won't be able to spend that much time there," she gently told the elder of the pair, "but why don't you swing by the first class lounge? They'll give you some ginger ale for the trip, if nothing else."

Noin blushed slightly at the comment, more than a little embarrassed. She had spent all her life being recognized for her strength, something that she had enjoyed quite thoroughly. While she knew there was nothing wrong with her present situation, and that the majority of women went through it at some point in their lives, the idea of being looked at as fragile burned her. She did not care for that 'delicate flower' look the clerk was giving her, and she had half a mind to tell the woman as such.

However, Hilde noticed that look and was instantly diffusing the situation. "Aw, she's fine," she waved off, taking the tickets from the clerk. "Thanks for the concern, though. Have a great day!" Before either of the other women could say another word, Hilde had placed their bags on the conveyor belt, save the one they carried with them personally, grabbed Noin's arm, and taken them to the security line.

"Wait here," the shorter woman commanded. The clerk had not been kidding when she had told them that they would not have much time. There was less than an hour to go before their designated shuttle took off, and the line at security alone was going to take that time. Leaving the bag with Noin, Hilde very patiently walked up to a woman working at the gate. She appeared to be in her forties, and that was an unmistakable wedding ring on her finger. It was the best shot Hilde had.

"Hi," she gently said, smiling at the security guard. "I don't mean to be rude, but my sister," she pointed, indicating where Noin was standing, "is having a hard round with her morning sickness. Is there any way we could get a wheelchair or something so she could sit down and lower her head? I know it's a lot to ask, but it would help her out so much."

With a tender look in her eye, the security guard smiled. "Tell you what, kid," she answered, "I'll do you one better. If you get your paperwork out, I'll let you and your sister skip to the front of the line."

"Oh, that's not necessary!" Hilde insisted, despite the fact that it was precisely her plan. She had long since learned from her other half that '…if you present as in need and ask for something small, they'll either give you nothing or they'll give you their damn all'.

"Don't worry about it," the other woman replied. "Believe me, kiddo, I've been there myself, and there's nothing worse when you're expecting and sick than waiting in line at a crowded airport. Now you go tell your sister to scoot on up here, and I'll get you through in no time at all."

"Oh, thank you!" Hilde gushed. She pulled their boarding passes along with her own identification out of her pocket and handed them to the woman. "I'll go get her right away. Thank you! Thank you so very much!" Wasting no time at all, she jogged back to her 'sister' and grabbed the back. "Get out your ID," she told Noin. "We just got a head of the line pass."

Noin gave her counterpart a concerned look. "What did you…"

"Nothing bad," Hilde assured. "Now come on, we don't want to miss our flight."

Sure enough, even with their trip to the front of the checkpoint, the two of them barely made their way onto their ship in time. By the time they were seated and airborne, Noin was struggling so badly to keep her nausea under control that she was actually trembling. From the seat beside her, Hilde reached out and placed a hand on Noin's. "We're almost to cruising," she gently told her friend. "As soon as they turn the sign off, you can go get this out of your system. Just a couple minutes more."

At her side, Noin wore a stoic mask. Never had she felt so miserable in her life.

/

Blood pooled around the fallen warrior, and he found he lacked the strength to stop it any further. The wounds on Zechs' arms had never truly closed, and when he had removed the bandages from one of them to change the dressing, what little skin had formed was ripped away. Already weakened from hunger and previous blood loss, it did not take long for the pilot to be left too weak to do anything. The harder he tried to move, the worse it was.

As his eyes began to drift close, Zechs finally lost that last spark of hope. Mathis was practically dead. Matthews was still incapable of doing anything. He, personally, was too weak and wounded to go any further. They were totally stuck. The food was all but gone, as was their drinkable water. No one knew where they were. No one knew what they needed. There was nothing. There was no one. There was no hope.

Zechs' eyes finally closed, and quietly to himself, he admitted that they would not open again. There was no fight left in him. No hope, no strength, no will. There was no coming back from that. It was the end. He would never again get to be a pilot. He would never again see his sister. He would never again hold his lover dearly.

That would be what would be missed the most. He had never been all that close to the Gundam pilots, and his relationship with his sister had been distant at its best and war at its worst. The only true connection he had ever had in his life, save his obscure friendship with the late Treize, had been with Noin. She was the only one that had never turned on him. Even at his lowest point, she had stood by him. True, she had raised a weapon at him once, but she had never fired, and in her defense, he was trying to kill everyone.

Noin would never be in his arms again. She would never kiss him tenderly, would never tease him for his eccentricities, and would never assure him that everything would be fine. He would never get to look at her face again, never touch her gentle body, never show her how much he loved her and worshipped her.

As the darkness fell upon him, all Zechs could think of was Noin. She was his world. She was his life. She was all that really mattered. The darkness began to overtake her beautiful image, and Zechs wanted to scream out and reach for it. She could not be gone forever! He had to hold on, for her! He could not leave her again!

But the strength was gone, and the darkness consumed him. He was so far gone he never even felt the hand that was placed on his shoulder.


	18. Chapter 18

Une sat at her desk, staring blankly at her computer screen. Someone should have called her. Someone should have established contact. Given the nature of the situation they were in, things had been far too quiet, far too long. There had been no word from Yuy, Maxwell, and Winner on their retrieval mission. There had been no further signal sent from Zechs to narrow down his location. There was no news from Noin or Schbeiker on their relocation. Granted, all three teams were supposed to be keeping quiet, but not so much as a whisper from any of them was not a good sign.

Two weeks had passed since she had sent the three pilots out to investigate the radio signal Noin had intercepted, and since radioing back that they had reached their first search point, they had not contacted her at all. Une had never been known for long patience, and waiting that long to gain that little was making her trigger finger itch.

There was plenty of other work for her to do. After all, she was running the largest agency on the planet, and the concept of relaxing remained fairly foreign to her. However, too many things were unexplained and vulnerable with the top soldiers for her to get much done. Her focus was shot, and Une had a sinking feeling that until things began to get resolved, she was not going to be a pleasant person to be around.

Three Gundam pilots, Zechs and Noin, and a temporarily instated agent were all missing in action, and Une was not going to be able to rest at all until at least _some_ of them were found.

/

Heero grunted as he forced an old doorway open. "Still no traces of anyone," he reported in his monotone voice.

"Same here," Quatre responded from his own area.

"Doesn't look like anyone's been here in over a decade," Duo called in. "This resource satellite wasn't in commission during the war, I know that. But it looks like it was abandoned well before that."

Quatre sighed, adjusting his neck inside his helmet. They had brought enough supplies for a month long excursion, but he would be lying if he said he had not hoped that it would have been dealt with in a matter of days. From the headquarters building, the blond had at least been able to conduct work remotely. But out on assignment, he was unable to maintain that. He had known perfectly well that it was going to take vacation time in order to be on full active duty, but he had been hoping to get more accomplished in that time. He missed being a soldier. He missed knowing that he made a difference, and not just to his shareholders. But he, Heero, and Duo did not manage to find their target soon, he was going to have to trade out with Wufei and return back to his miserable life in his office. Clearly, the 'vacation' he was taking from his own business was not going as well as he had hoped.

That was going to be difficult, though, since their long distance communication equipment was not working. They had realized soon after they had landed that it was not functional, but they felt they had more pressing issues to worry about than letting Une know that they had not found anything yet.

The three of them had gone through almost half of what they had brought, and from what they could tell, they were going to have to restock on the nearest colony before the mission was through. There was no sign at all that there had been a base on the resource satellite so far, let alone their missing comrade. And with only the three of them available for that particular mission, it would be several weeks more before they could concretely rule out the satellite.

"Hey, does anyone else thing that there's something weird about all of this?" Duo's voice called out, following Quatre and Heero into the dark, newly opened hallway.

Over his headset, Quatre heard Heero let out an angry breath. The Japanese pilot was still giving his American partner the silent treatment, and Quatre was quickly getting fed up with playing interpreter for them. Rolling his eyes, the blond responded, "What about, Duo?"

"This whole set up," the braided pilot said. "This resource satellite doesn't seem to be nearly as tapped out as a lot of the others, but they're still up and running. This one ain't great, but there's plenty here for working with. Makes no sense for it to be shut down."

"I suppose you're right," Quatre agreed, looking around. "I've got a dozen under my company, and the ones of this caliber are still highly operational."

From his side, Heero grunted slightly. "As fascinating as that is," he informed his comrades, "it is likely irrelevant to our mission. I hold my sincerest doubts that Zechs' mission is in any way tied in with a long defunct resource satellite."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Duo agreed. "Hell, the guy was, like, four when this thing must have been closed down."

"But that doesn't mean that Mathis has not been using it," Quatre pointed out. "In fact, if it did close down decades ago, then this would be an ideal spot for setting up a private army. No one would be likely to scour the area. You could get a lot done with no one noticing."

Both Heero and Duo gave affirmation to the statement. "I just wish it weren't so damn big or that we had a full team and equipment for this," Duo sighed. "We've been here for two weeks already, and I haven't seen one God damned sign of an army base, let alone Zechs." Tilting his head sideways, the braided pilot looked over at his partners. "Hey, I wonder how his makeover has been holding up," he told them. "The old base was a shambles, and even I wouldn't double back for a hairbrush in that situation."

"You're right," Quatre softly agreed. "And he's been gone for weeks. If before leaving for wherever he went he was unable to grab the proper supplies, then his natural hair color should be extremely obvious at the roots."

"It's not enough," Heero pointed out, going deeper into the shaft. "Being tall with light roots is not going to be enough to identify him."

But Duo shook his head. "I don't know," he responded. "I still say that it was a dumb ass idea to send the most famous face among us out on a secret mission. If he's got his real hair showing, it's not going to be all that hard to figure out who the hell he is. Hell, you identified him on eye contact when you went on the last leg of the mission, Heero. I'm sure you rearranged his nose beautifully, and he buffed up and got a haircut, but anyone who looks really closely at him shouldn't have that hard a time figuring it out."

Heero gave no verbal response to Duo, still intent on giving him the cold shoulder. He was no longer entirely certain why he was brushing his partner off, but he remembered that he was doing it, and Heero Yuy never went down without a fight. However, he could privately admit that Duo had a point. Without the proper supplies, Zechs was going to stick out almost as much as he did with long platinum locks. And the message they had received had told them that the mission was compromised. If it really was from Zechs, and the mission really was compromised, they needed to know why. Had Zechs been identified by someone? Was the general dead? Hell, the mission had been compromised weeks ago when the biological attack had been released. Was he simply affirming that?

Whatever the issue was, it had to be important. Zechs did not go off the grid for the hell of it. He may not have a reason that anyone was directly aware of, but there was a reason all the same. If his disappearance was deliberate, then it stood to reason that the tall soldier was in full control of his situation. However, that was not what they were assuming at the moment. If Zechs had been in control, then it would not have taken so long for what little communication they had to get through. Not only that, but more detail would have been given in the coordinates. As it was, they were only able to narrow it down to a resource satellite and one portion of a nearby colony. Zechs would never have given such limiting information if he had been in good circumstances.

That meant that their fellow soldier was likely in great distress, and that could mean grim news. While they all had the utmost faith in one another's abilities as soldiers and survivors, the odds were getting longer and longer that they would find good news at the end of their search. They were not doubting that the man would be alive, but the state he was in was likely not going to be good. Whether or not that meant physically incapacitated by injury or incarceration by their enemy remained to be seen.

As the three made their way down, Duo sighed. "Battery's running low on this thing," he informed his friends, holding up the scanner he was holding. "We need to head back to base camp and charge this thing."

"Roger that," Heero confirmed.

From beside him, Duo jumped and pumped his fist into the air. "Yes! Yes! Yes! I got you to acknowledge me! Two friggin' weeks, man, but I got you to talk! I rock, you suck, I am the best, thank you, good-night!"

As Heero growled and chased Duo out of the corridor, Quatre shook his head. Suddenly, he found himself wondering if getting Heero to talk again was going to be worse than the silent treatment.

"Allah, give me strength…"

/

Hilde stretched out her muscles, enjoying her post workout cool down. Due to the nature of her mission, she rarely got to go beyond the walls of their new location. She had always been a bit of a free spirit, and being restrained to Noin's side for the past two weeks had been taxing on her. She did not mind at all working with the woman. In fact, she quite enjoyed Noin's company. It was simply the lack of going out that was driving Hilde nuts. Even as a soldier she had been allotted more free roaming!

Noin had been struggling through the past couple of weeks of her pregnancy. Her headaches had gotten significantly worse since they had relocated in such a hurry, and she had been struggling to keep food down that whole time. While Hilde knew perfectly well that some of it was just standard fare for a pregnancy, she also knew that every symptom Noin was experiencing was exacerbated by her high level of stress.

Well, maybe not the snoring…

Even without counting the snoring, it was fairly obvious that Noin's stress level was directly affecting her pregnancy. Initially, it had not been so bad. She had some issues with fatigue and morning sickness, it had never been so bad. That first move they did together had been rough, but having to immediately undo it before they had even had a chance to settle seemed to have pushed the woman over some sort of ledge.

Stuck inside all day for two weeks might not have been great for Hilde's nerves, but it was doing wonders for her body. She had always been in good shape, but she was toned to a level that she had not known since leaving boot camp five years earlier. Every muscle in her beauty was beautifully defined, and her strength had increased fairly dramatically since her assignment had started. Her flexibility had increased significantly as well, having nothing better to do than exercise and stretch. To pass time in the day, she had actually started dusting one level of a bookshelf with a sock covered foot on the next one up.

As she finished her cool down routine, Hilde looked around her temporary home and sighed. The place was nice enough, but neither woman had felt even remotely comfortable with the thought of settling in to it. After two abrupt relocations, the idea of unpacking seemed almost like a waste of time and a setup for grief and stress should they have to go through the experience again. The women had never truly spoken of it, but there was an unsaid agreement that only what was necessary was to be taken out of boxes and bags, and that all other things should be kept tucked away. It did not make life comfortable, but it gave both of them just slightly more peace of mind. After all, there was no telling how long it would take until the boys found them again.

And how had they been found in the first place? Better yet, _why_ had they been found? Again, it was a topic that Hilde and Noin had never directly discussed with one another, but it was rarely far from their minds. If the mission was still going, the boys would have been buys, too busy to worry about the two of them. While none of them was cold toward their comrades, it was a secret to no one that none of them seemed all that aware of the people they were not working on at any exact moment in time. Why would Duo, and probably with Heero assisting him, have taken the time to not only call to check in with her, but go through with the two dozen things that had to be done to track her down? There had to be something wrong. Something _big_.

But there was no way for Noin or Hilde to bring the topic up. They both had loved ones out there, but Noin's was far more likely to be the one in trouble. The expectant mother was under enough stress as it was. She did not need her companion conjecturing just how bad her lover's future might be.

Sighing yet again, Hilde walked for the bathroom. Perhaps a long, scalding shower would help her soothe her nerves.

She definitely needed something.

/

"This is going to take forever," Quatre grumbled, going over the maps again. "The resource satellite alone will take at least another two weeks to thoroughly check with the three of us, and the colony section that also falls under these coordinates could take another month on top of that. And this is all assuming that his location does not change."

Sipping on a fresh cup of coffee, Duo gave a single shoulder shrug. "We'll swap you out for Wufei if we don't find him soon enough," the reasoned. "It'd suck to lose you, but I guess you really do have a life outside of all of this, huh?"

Quatre nodded slightly, keeping his eyes closed. "How does Une expect to find someone under such broad directions with concealable equipment and only three people looking?" he asked, more so to himself than anyone else.

"We have what we have," Heero firmly stated from the next room over in their shuttle.

"Yeah, but Quat's right," Duo pointed out, taking a seat next to his blond friend. "This is going to take so long that _Trowa's _going to be the one to find him. And in the meantime, Noin's not exactly in a position to wait. We didn't get a hell of a lot from that doctor's file, but we do know she's got a bun in the oven."

Taking a sip from his own cup, Quatre softly asked, "Do you think Zechs knows?"

Neither of his companions answered his query. For the next several hours, the three young men sat in silence, each one pondering the true seriousness of their mission.


	19. Chapter 19

Time went on, and no one got their wish. No one had been able to find any trace of their missing comrade, and their lives remained in a stalemate. Months had come and gone, but they seemed no closer to bringing their mission to a close. The coordinates had seemingly sent them on nothing more than a wild goose chase.

The boys had insisted to their superior several times that since they already knew about Noin's condition, the woman held no need to remain underground. However, Une had denied their requests and demands. Noin was still at risk of being targeted, and while the former Gundam pilots could certainly make good bodyguards, the director had better uses for them. If keeping Noin hidden away could leave four agents open for actively working on the case, then that was what would be done. Things were taking too long as it was. It was bad enough that Quatre had to back down from duty. Losing one of the other four would be flat out unacceptable.

Noin was in the eighth month of her pregnancy, and never in her life had she been so miserable. Two weeks earlier she had been placed on modified bed rest due to high blood pressure, and the physical restrictions were driving her up the wall. The restrictions that came along with any pregnancy were a nuisance to a career soldier like her, but being that restrained felt like true suffering to her.

On that cool morning, Hilde entered her partner's room delicately. "Hey," she gently greeted. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I need to shoot someone," Noin grumbled. "So be a dear and fetch me a criminal and a gun, will you?"

Hilde laughed, but it was not so joyous a sound as Noin would have hoped. "Well, I don't know if they'll let me do that," she gently teased, "but how about I make you breakfast instead? I'll make anything you want."

"I want to shoot someone," the brunette shot back, "but if you won't let me, then I'll settle for scrambled eggs and toast."

"Coming right up!" Hilde responded, ducking out as quickly as possible. Noin's bed rest had been hard on the younger woman, too. Even after spending years with an energetic counterpart who thrived on making others smile, Hilde still found it difficult to remain that ray of sunshine and joy for someone who felt like crap and was not able to move much. As far as the younger woman was concerned, Noin had every right to be pissed off at the world, and that made it far more challenging to cheer her up.

However, much like her partner, Hilde did not go down without a fight. In a few weeks time, either the mission would be over or the baby would be born, and when either of those things happened, Noin would be a much, much happier person. Of course, being in her third trimester, Noin was no longer able to fly anywhere. They were stuck on the colony they were on until the birth, no matter when the mission ended. But Hilde had a feeling that if Zechs were back in the picture, Noin would do significantly better.

Plus, that would free up Hilde to go home to the boyfriend she had not seen in months.

As she began to prepare breakfast, the former soldier let out a sad sigh. She missed Duo so much that sometimes she wanted to cry. Ever since they had first met, they had rarely been apart for more than a few weeks at a time. Never had they gone so long without one another. She missed every little thing about him. She missed his bright smile. She missed his boisterous laugh. She missed the way he used to wake her up by tickling her cheek with the end of his braid. She missed the warmth she felt when he held her in his arms. God help her, she even missed the way he would try to con her into doing the dishes every night.

Her mind continued to wander as the meal cooked. If Zechs was not located in the next few weeks, Noin would be giving birth without him. And if that happened, then as far as Hilde could tell, they would have two options. They could either remain undercover and keep out of site, raising the child quietly as the boys continued to try to close the mission, or they could return and claim the child was Hilde's. Neither of those seemed like ideal scenarios, and it was going to be trying either way. Staying away from home seemed miserable, but the alternative…

If they chose to return, and Zechs was still missing in action, then Hilde would, for the time being, claim to be the child's mother. It would get them home, but it seemed as though it might be more misery than it was worth. Not only would it mean that Noin would not be able to be with her child regularly, but Hilde would have to first tell Duo that they had a child only to later take it back. Perhaps if they went that way she could tell Duo the truth so she would not have to hurt him later…

She sighed again and took the food off the burner. There was no good way for them to move forward without the blond pilot. It had already gone far too long, in Hilde's opinion. She could not imagine going through something as significant as pregnancy without Duo by her side. It was unfair. Noin did not deserve to go through such a thing with only a friend by her side. And to have to go through the entire thing undercover, with no contact with the outside world and having to keep her every thought to herself just made everything so much worse.

As she brought the tray in to the bedridden woman, Hilde forced a smile on her face. "Here we go!" she cheerfully announced. "Eggs, toast, and juice, just the way you like it!"

"You're a godsend," Noin praised, taking the tray from her friend. "I don't know who taught you how to cook, but I owe them a very nice thank-you card."

"Yes, because we all know how hard it is to scramble eggs and make toast," Hilde answered, rolling her eyes and reaching for her own plate. "But if you're dead set on getting me something, you can get me some form of tribute that will help feed my caffeine addiction."

Noin smiled. "Consider it done."

The two women ate in silence, both trying to save what little conversational material they had left for a later time. After months confined with only one another for company, they had long since used all their favorite stories. New topics were greater than gold to them, and were not to be taken lightly. "So," Hilde finally said, cleaning up the completed meal, "I got something for us to work on together."

The senior woman frowned. "Oh, God, tell me that you didn't get me a jigsaw puzzle, because I may have to murder you with it if you did."

"Temper, temper!" Hilde teased, moving the tray off to the side table. "Have you always had these murderous urges, or is this another side effect of the pregnancy?"

"I work for Une and sleep with Zechs," Noin quickly returned. "You tell me."

With a laugh, Hilde shook her head. "Gee, and here I thought you were always calm and level headed."

"Please see above two examples."

It was the hardest Hilde had laughed in a while, and the sensation felt wonderful. "Someone's playful!" she chuckled. Getting to her feet, she gathered the tray and prepared to leave, she offered her friend a smile. "Wait right here."

"Yes, because I'm such a flight risk right now," Noin responded with an eye roll.

Still chuckling, Hilde retrieved a bag from the living room. "Here we go," she quickly said, placing the bag on the bed. "I figure since you're stuck in here, and it's not like I'm going out all that much these days, I figured we could work on this together."

Noin raised an eyebrow at the materials her partner. "Knitting?" she skeptically asked. "Your brilliant new hobby is knitting?"

"Hey, don't give me that look!" the smaller woman defended. "First of all, just learning how to do it is going to eat up a ton of time. And after that, think of how many things you're going to be able to make! Caps, booties, blankets, and they'll all give you bragging rights. After all, how many women these days actually get to actually claim that they _made_ stuff for their kids?"

While she still did not seem convinced, Noin did at least pick up one of the books on the subject. "You are aware of the fact that I've never done this artsy stuff in my life, right?" she asked her partner.

"Like I have," Hilde responded, grabbing a pair of knitting needles. "Believe me, we'll be working on this one together, and I see several glorious disasters coming through before we actually get this down pat."

Noin flipped through the pages. "Well, I suppose it's not that complicated," she eventually said. "These instructions seem to be fairly straightforward. At least the part about making a square potholder…"

/

Another few weeks passed, and Noin was not allowed off of her bed rest. Her blood pressure was better than it had been, but it was not nearly low enough to keep her doctors happy. However, thanks to Hilde's seemingly endless supply of crafts and projects, she was at least spared too much boredom. And her skills with those crafts had definitely improved. Where her first real attempt was a bit of a mishap (Noin called it a shawl, Hilde called it a potholder with a pituitary problem), she had gotten the art of blanket making down fairly well and was working on attempting to make a hat.

It was not easy at all for her, though. While she hated to admit it, Noin had noticed a very real increase in general clumsiness. And quite frankly, struggling to work on a hat while Hilde was working on her fourth pair of booties was starting to bring her morale back down. However, the younger woman had taken to keeping her more advanced projects away from Noin, and that was helping. She might not say it all that often, but Noin appreciated all the amazing work that the younger woman was doing for her.

"Hey, Hilde!" the former soldier called out.

Two seconds later, the smaller woman was poking her head in the room. "Yeah, what's up?"

Noin frowned and rubbed her belly. "Something's not right."

That definitely put Hilde on high alert. "What's not right?" she quickly asked. "Are you having contractions? Did your water break? Are you bleeding?"

"No, no, it's not me," Noin returned. "It's the little guy. Something's not right."

"Honey, you're scaring me a little bit," Hilde softly said. "Please, tell me what the problem is."

Noin's frown deepened even further. "The conga line stopped."

Hilde was up and moving in an instant. Noin had been giving regular updates over the past few weeks about the near constant movements of her unborn child, and from those reports, Hilde knew perfectly well that the child was a regular mover and shaker. "When was the last time you felt something?" she asked, picking up the phone.

The pregnant woman grimaced as she thought about it. "The last time I remember feeling something was almost four hours ago."

Before long, Hilde was pulling up to the entrance of the local hospital. All of their previous medical experiences had been in a private office, and they had a midwife on standby, in case Noin gave birth before they were able to go home, but never had they been to an actual hospital. Hospitals were obvious and easy to check. But their private practice doctor was not picking up at her office, and it was far too serious a situation to simply wait until for the doctor to return.

Hilde whipped the car around in the parking lot, doing a flawless J-turn into a space near the entrance. "Okay, honey, here we go," she gently stated. Like a shot she was out of the car and helping her partner. "The wheelchair is coming out, and we'll make sure you and the little guy are just fine."

With a hiss, Noin nodded and allowed herself to be assisted into the chair. Normally her pride would have demanded that she walk in under her own power, but given the circumstances, pride was the least of her concerns.

_Something's wrong_, she thought to herself again and again. _Something's wrong, something's wrong, something's wrong…_

Hilde stayed right by her side until the doctors insisted on privacy during the exam, and even then the younger woman was as close as she could be. Sadly enough, her first thought when she had heard Noin's announcement was the possibility that the child would be stillborn. Between Noin's high blood pressure and the sudden drop off of fetal movement, things did not look promising for the mother to be and her child.

Soon enough the doctors had finished their exam, and with Noin's consent, they informed both women that the situation was not good. If they were able to deliver the child immediately and get the baby the help it needed, they stood a chance. If not, the child would almost certainly die in the womb.

Tears rolled freely down Noin's cheeks as she signed the forms, and Hilde held her hand as they prepared her for an emergency caesarean. The mother to be tried to hold back the tears, but everything was too wrong for her to feel even the slightest bit in control. She had imagined the day for months. She would be in a familiar hospital, in a familiar town, her friends eagerly awaiting news and Zechs standing by her side. She pictured her lover getting slightly queasy, in spite of his bloodied past, and she would have found it cute. And she would have gone through the stages of birthing her child naturally, experiencing every agonizing moment to the fullest and swearing at Zechs all the way. And in the end, they would take turns holding the child, _their_ child, and it would be the most perfect moment of her life.

But none of that was coming true. They were running her to surgery, ready to cut her open to save her dying child. The doctors working on her knew nothing about her, not even her real name. Her love was nowhere to be seen, by _anyone_, and there was little hope of him turning up soon. And at the end of the day, her chances of cradling a bundle of joy were just as high as her sobbing over a miserable loss.

Nothing was as it should have been.

Not even close.


	20. Chapter 20

Noin rolled her head to the side, lazily looking out the window. The artificial rain was pouring down, and the synthetic storm raged outside. The lighting in the room was left dim at her request. Anything brighter caused an almost searing pain behind her eyes. A false clap of thunder sounded, and the former pilot closed her eyes, a few silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

A soft knock sounded at the door. "Hey honey," Hilde gently greeted. "I brought you a ginger ale."

Noin slid her eyes open again, but she refused to turn and look at the younger woman.

"They've got the little one all set up in the NICU," the smaller female explained, "and things are looking…okay. His lungs are a little underdeveloped, but they've got him on medicine for that."

Still no visible reaction came from the new mother.

Hilde entered the room completely and placed the soda on the snack tray, knowing perfectly well that Noin was not going to drink it. "Do you want me to contact the mother ship?" she asked. "I think that it should probably be done in the next few hours, but I can't do it from here. Would you be okay if I left for about half an hour?"

Not so much as a sigh escaped Noin, but one clearly came from Hilde. "I'll be right here," the younger woman finally said, taking a seat. Until her partner was in a stable enough state of mind, she could not afford to be left alone. Without another word, Hilde picked up a magazine and pretended to read, all the while watching the despondent new mother.

/

"I'm killing Une."

Heero rolled his eyes at Duo's words. "If you're going to do it, don't just stand there talking about it. Go do it."

"Don't tempt me," the braided man growled. "I have not seen my girlfriend in almost seven God damned months, and I am blaming that witch for this! Seven months, Heero! Seven months!"

"I know," his partner huffed. "I have been listening to you bitch about it for those seven months. Now can we get back to work?"

"Only if that work involves you finding where Hilde is," Duo snipped. "I haven't had any luck finding them, we haven't managed to find Zechs, there haven't been any leads in _months_ on his location, and I am so freaking tightly wound that I swear to God that someone is going to die soon."

Beside him, Trowa spared him a glance. "Is it too much to assume that you have already consulted Une on the matter?"

"Once or twice…"

"Une pulled her pistol on him and told him the next time he asked, it was not going to be a warning shot," Heero answered for him.

Duo shot his partner a glare. "Oh, who asked you?"

But Heero seemed utterly unfazed. "You are the one who has spent years forcing me to talk more," he calmly reported. "There is no one to blame for this but yourself."

"You're evil," his partner sneered.

"Hn."

More frustrated than ever, Duo jumped to his feet. "You know, instead of doing your damndest to piss the hell out of me, you could be trying to find where the hell they disappeared to months ago."

Trowa shook his head. "Duo, we've got the system running through any description of any two females that fit a vague description of Noin and Hilde, and we've gone through hundreds of hits with no luck. Noin's got good height, and that helps narrow her down a little, but do you have any idea how many women fit Hilde's height and build? Not to mention that we have to allow for every hair and eye color for both of them. God only knows how many times they could have changed those."

"And if they're keeping in communication with Une, I haven't been able to catch it," the Japanese pilot grimly admitted. There was little that displeased the soldier more than being unable to follow through with his intentions, but even he had not been able to trace any communication, through any means, on any line, between Une and the two missing females.

"They learned," Trowa added, more than slightly impressed. "They left one small loop open that first time, and we caught it. They have left absolutely nothing to chance this time."

Duo let out an angry sigh through his nose. "I'm checking the program again," he announced. Neither of the other young men were surprised by that statement. Duo had spent the majority of his time pouring over Heero's program, checking every face of every woman that it registered. Countless hours had been spent looking at strangers in hope of finding his girlfriend, but nothing had turned out.

Heero and Trowa stayed quiet, both hoping that their friend would either find something soon or quit the chase. They certainly hoped the best for him, but they were not much further off from Une with their tolerance for his persistence. Almost every day since they had realized the women were missing had involved at least twenty minutes on the topic with no new information to feed in to it.

Varying slightly in topic, Trowa looked up from his papers and questioned whether or not anyone had been given any more information on the Zechs case.

"He's gone to ground and burrowed as deep as he could," Duo sneered, checking photo after photo in the system. "I don't have a clue what made him do it, but he's made himself disappear just as well as the girls have." Sitting up slightly in his seat, the braided man's brow furrowed. "You don't think they're all together, do you?"

Trowa and Heero both paused in their work. It was a thought that had been flitting in and out of their minds over the past few months, but it seemed too much like a paranoid fantasy than anything else. But after hearing it actually come out of someone's mouth, they both found themselves wondering why, exactly, they had not actively pursued it earlier. "What could they be doing together?" Trowa asked.

"Well, we know Noin's pregnant," Duo pointed out. "Maybe he finished up his mission, caught up with her, and they're just enjoying a little alone time."

"With Hilde there?" Heero asked.

"Yeah, I know," the American sighed. "Look, right now I'm working on any damn solution that does not involve any of them being dead or mortally wounded. Could you help me be optimistic right now?"

Without uttering a word, Heero pulled out a pad of paper, scrawled something on it, wadded it up, and threw it at his partner's head. "What the…" Duo sputtered, plucking it out of the air an inch from his face. Quickly he unwrapped it, and he immediately recognized the information. "Heero, I do not need a copy of Quatre's phone number!"

"You wanted support being optimistic," the Japanese pilot replied in his monotone way. "This is me giving it to you."

"Smart ass!"

"Hn."

The door opened, and Wufei walked in. "Gentlemen, have I missed anything?"

Duo returned to his console, giving his Chinese friend a dismissive wave. "Nothing new here, your royal stick-in-the-mudness."

Wufei glared at the braided pilot, but chose not to offer any verbal retaliation. It had taken several years for him to be able to curb his instincts and not respond to too many of Duo's remarks, but he had finally learned that engaging Duo meant encouraging Duo, something that never ended in Wufei's favor. "I brought up our proposition to Une that we go out and check out the colony near those coordinates again," he informed the others. "She has approved, but it was made quite clear that this third pass will likely be our final pass. We cannot continue using resources going over areas that have technically been cleared, but it remains the only lead we hold."

"Fantastic," Duo grumbled, continuing to go through the pictures. "When do we leave?"

"All four of us are to deport at 0500 tomorrow morning," Wufei answered. "I would say you should pack your bags, but…" Just as anticipated, the three others in the room reached to their sides and picked up the packs they took with them everywhere. "Precisely. Get a good rest, gentlemen. Our mission starts soon."

Duo turned slightly as Wufei left the room. "Does he have to talk to us like we're naughty school children? I swear, it's a genetic defect in him or something."

"A dangerous challenge to throw down," Trowa teased. "He could very likely say the same thing about your more loquacious tendencies."

A wicked smirk crossed the American's face. "Nah, he hasn't been that dumb in a while. Don't worry, though, I'm fully armed for the next time he screws up."

/

Noin winced as she moved from her bed to the wheelchair, but she refused to give vocalization to her pain. That did not stop Hilde from noticing, though. "Careful, honey," she softly said.

"I'm fine," the older pilot insisted as she settled.

"Mmhm," Hilde hummed behind her. It was clearly a lie, but it was not worth fighting over. Noin had enough on her plate right now, and a dispute over how she may or may not feel would not help at all. After all, it had been a hell of a fight just to get her in the wheelchair. Without another word, she pushed the new mother down the hallway.

It did not take long before they approached the room Noin dreaded. It was dimly lit and reeked of sterilization. The infants were encased in plastic covered cradles, ones that allowed sterile air in through a hose and had glove tubes that would allow a parent contact without contact. It was a room hoping for life but looming with death.

Before they were allowed in, both women were cleaned and put in sterile robes. Neither of them had yet been to that room, and both were apprehensive. The doctors had not been giving particularly clear answers to their questions, and Noin and Hilde both knew what that usually meant. It was with great reluctance that they entered the NICU.

There was a nurse guiding them in, one with a soft smile on her face. "Right over here," she gently said, "is your baby boy."

Noin looked into the contained bassinet, a look of awe on her face. Everything had been so rushed, and every second had been so critical when he was born that it was the first time Noin truly got to see her child. He was larger than many of the other children in the room, having been among the closest to being born to term. But he was paler than many of them, and something seemed off.

"Do you know what happened yet?" Noin softly asked the nurse.

The woman scurried around to the front of the infant's cradle and picked up the chart. "No, not yet," she informed them with a sympathetic look. "The doctors will probably be by in a little bit to run a few more tests, though, and you can ask them what they know."

The former pilot nodded, her eyes never moving from her son. "Thank you."

It felt to her as though everything she had gone through over the past few months had been nothing more than a dream. There was no way her situation could be real. How could she be in a hospital, looking down at her weak son, with an assumed identity and no idea where the boy's father was? There was so much more that needed to be done, but at that moment, Noin felt as though she was drowning.

Refusing to look away from the infant, tears quietly rolled down the former soldier's cheeks.

/

Une sighed as she leaned back against her chair. Though she would never dare say it out loud, she had actually been quite relieved with the radio silence over the entire Mathis matter. True, it was not good that they did not know where the old loon was, and part of her top staff was still out, but without anything to go off of, she had been able to pull her remaining top people on other assignments. It may not have been ideal for the crew, but for the good of the group and the general safety of those they looked over, it had become the best scenario. Unless someone popped up holding the general by the scruff of the neck, he was going to have to go on the backburner.

However, that peace had been jilted. Hilde had just contacted her with the news of the birth. It had to be the most miserable birth announcement the woman had ever heard. They had rushed to a hospital when the fetus had stopped moving inside Noin's womb, and had discovered the initial problem of the cord being wrapped around the child's neck. They had managed to get the child out, and there did not seem to be damage from the cord. But there was another problem, one that they had discovered shortly after the birth, and the diagnosis had just come in.

Tetralogy of the Fallot. A four way strike on the heart. It was not a death sentence in that day and age, but it still did not mean anything good. There was surgery that could be done in six months, and a close eye and good care would certainly help. Without any action, survival beyond the age of twenty was rare. But early intervention changed that. People with the condition were known to live fairly long and active lives if they got help and they got it young.

It also meant that they could not transport the child off of the colony they were on. That heart would not fare well against the pressures of space travel. Even if Zechs and Mathis did manage to emerge, Noin and Hilde were stuck where they were until after surgery had been performed and given time to heal. Eight months at least.

Maxwell was going to kill her…


	21. Chapter 21

Three weeks had passed since the boy had been born, and all things considered, he was doing fairly well. He was still in the intensive care unit, and would be staying there for a while, but enough had happened for Noin and Hilde to be assured that while it was necessary, the child was in minimal danger. His lungs were developing nicely with the help of medication, and his heart was monitored carefully. It was still not easy for them, but at least the situation had become tolerable.

"You know," Hilde casually mentioned one day, looking down at the child's isolated unit, "someday, you really do need to come up with a name for the little guy."

Noin rolled her eyes, but there was definitely a small smile on her face. "What, you don't think I should just call him 'Baby Boy' for the rest of his life?"

"Not unless you want him beaten up on a regular basis, no," Hilde teased. "Look, I'm not saying that you need to come up with a final answer or anything today, but do you at least have _any_ ideas for his name?"

The new mother was quiet for a moment before shaking her head. "Honestly, I really haven't been able to come up with anything that I was comfortable with," she admitted. "There were a few that I liked, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn't…that I really can't…"

She did not need to finish her sentence for Hilde to know what she was saying. He was Zechs' son, too, and Noin was not comfortable with the idea of picking their son's name without at least talking to the father about it. "Well," the younger woman softly spoke, "I know it may not be ideal, but, and I _know_ you don't want to hear this, you may need to do the name alone. After all, there's no guarantee that, well, you're going to get a consult on it in the near future."

"I know," Noin sighed. "I've been debating that with myself for a while now, and I think if we hit the six week mark, I'll just do it alone."

"Fair enough," Hilde agreed. Leaning over, she cooed at the little boy. "You are just the cutest little boy ever, aren't you?" she playfully praised. "You're just like your mommy, aren't you?"

Noin chuckled, her eyes never leaving her son. "Are you kidding me? Look at that pale fuzz on top of his head and those clear eyes. That's daddy's little boy right there."

"You know, a lot of babies look like that at first," Hilde pointed out, "but most of them have at least slightly darker hair and eyes by their second birthdays."

The mother shrugged, not particularly caring if the boy remained as blond as Zechs or later developed her own darker features. No matter what, she would always think that her son was the best son any mother could ever have.

/

Trowa pulled the car into the parking lot, silently turning off the engine. "How do you propose we divide up this section?" he asked the others.

Already on his laptop, Heero studied the layout of the area. They had been systematically checking the entire colony, one ten mile radius at a time. It was long and annoying, but knowing that they would not be given time to check again left them with little option. "We're deep in civilian territory," he evenly responded. "There are a handful of schools around here, which seem unlikely, but still need to be checked out. Over a dozen apartment complexes, various shopping areas, a mortuary, and a hospital are here." His fingers flew over the keyboard, and the others knew he was running a check for Zechs' alias. Several minutes passed in silence before he shook his head. "He's not registered under that name," he informed the others.

"Okay, so we do this the old school way," Duo piped up, taking off his seatbelt. "I'll take the hospital, and I'm taking Trowa with me."

Wufei turned around from the front seat and glared at the braided man. "What gives you the authority to command us like that?" he sternly demanded.

"Because," Duo explained, already opening the door, "I know how to charm a nurse, and Trowa's the next closest to human we've got. It's a two man job, and I don't trust either of you to not creep someone out there."

The Chinese man opened his mouth to protest the terms, but the others had already seemed to accept it and were moving on. "I'll check the mortuary," he finally grumbled. It was not where they were hoping to find their comrade, but it needed to be done.

"I will go with you," Heero offered.

Without another word, the four young men dispersed for their designated targets. They knew the odds were against them, and that there was still a lot of ground to very slowly cover, and that knowledge was not helping their spirits.

As Trowa and Duo approached the hospital, the green eyed pilot spared his partner a glance. "Am I to take it that we are following the same protocol that we have every other time we end up together?"

"Yup," Duo nodded. "I go straight to the front desk and see what I can get through charm, and you go to the top floor and quietly peek into every room, just to double check."

"Right."

It did not take long at all for them to reach their destination, and just as planned, Duo went straight for the front desk as Trowa walked for the elevator. "Excuse me," he softly greeted, "I was wondering if you might be able to help me?"

The nurse behind the counter approached him and smiled. After all, who could resist such a polite, good looking young man? "Of course," she answered. "Now, what do you need?"

Pretending to be shy, Duo looked down at his feet and shuffled a little. "Well, here's the thing," he explained. "I've got this buddy of mine who I fought with during the war." _Not necessarily on the same side,_ he mentally added, _but who needs the details?_ "He and I used to get in touch fairly regularly, but a few months ago, he basically dropped off the grid. I know he'd been having some problems right before I lost touch with him, and, well, I'm checking around to see if anyone knows where he is or if he's okay." Again, while Duo technically spoke the truth, he conveniently left out that the trouble his 'buddy' was in was gunfire and biological terrorism.

"Oh, you poor dear!" the nurse responded. "Well, let's see what I can do to help. What's your friend's name?"

Duo supplied the alias, along with the basics on what Zechs would likely look like. He sincerely doubted that the man would be checked into a room there, but there was a chance he had been there in the past months, and that would give them further clues to his whereabouts.

"Let me see what I can do," the nurse offered, entering the information into the computer. She frowned slightly and shook her head. "No, I don't see any record of anyone matching that name in our system." With a raised eyebrow, she asked, "Would you like me to check the status of our John Doe's?"

Duo sighed. "Yes, please," he politely asked. After all, everything needed to be checked.

Again, the nurse entered something into the computer. "Alright," she finally answered. "From around the time your friend went missing to now, we've had twenty-seven John Doe's admitted to our hospital." She paused a moment longer before sending Duo a concerned look. "Unfortunately, the majority of them were taken to the morgue. We have two still down there, and if you would like, I can get someone to escort you down to see if you can identify any of them. Any others have already been transferred to the colony's main morgue, which I can give you directions to, if you would like."

Nodding slightly, Duo responded, "Yeah, I guess that's the thing to do." He looked the nurse in the eye and cautiously asked, "You've got John Doe's here that aren't in the morgue?"

The nurse offered a sad smile. "Honey, most hospitals have at least a couple people who need help but can't give us their name. Tell you what, I'll call for that escort, and you can check out the four John Doe's we have." Gently, she reached out and placed one of her hands on his. "Maybe, if nothing else, you can find some closure today."

"Yeah," Duo answered, taking a seat. "Well, for what it's worth, thanks for helping me."

"Oh, don't you worry about it," the nurse offered. "But could you do something for me?"

Duo raised an eyebrow. "Sure. What is it?"

"Let me know how it turns out for you today?"

A soft smile crossed the young man's face as he answered, "Lady, you've got yourself a deal."

/

Heero and Wufei left the mortuary silently. They had not anticipated finding Zechs there, so they were not terribly disappointed to walk away with nothing new. After several minutes of quiet walking, Wufei finally asked, "Apartments or shops?"

Heero frowned. "Apartments," he eventually answered. He was hardly about to go door to door to each individual living unit and ask them for information, but he did have his infrared scanner with him that would at least help them narrow down which apartments were likely to have _any_ of the people they were searching for in them. After he and Wufei narrowed it down, they were almost certainly sending Duo in to go door to door, probably selling phony magazine subscriptions as a cover for getting visual confirmation of all local residents.

As they made their way toward the nearest complex, Wufei asked in a low voice, "Do you honestly believe this search is anything but futile? This is not even the closest one to the initial spot."

"Statistically speaking, the odds are poor at best," the Japanese man casually replied. "However, you and I have both witnessed good yields from poor odds in the past."

"There are better things we could be spending our time with," Wufei countered, "such as _why_ this situation presented itself in the first place."

Heero did not offer a verbal response, opting to continue walking in his traditional silence. Wufei was not alone in his thoughts, and it was hard to see their current mission as anything more than Une's way of shutting Duo up for a while. Still, if there was any hope of recovering even the slightest clue that could indicate what happened or where the missing men were, then it would be foolish and negligent to let it go. After all, poor odds were better than no odds.

/

Hilde stretched her back and groaned slightly. "Okay," she grunted with a smile, "your son is adorable, but if I keep bending over to make cutesy faces at him, my spine is going to be in a permanent question mark."

"Wimp," Noin gently teased, her eyes still on her little boy.

"Call me what you want, but I'm taking a break." Cracking her back again, she glanced over at the other woman. "I'm going to run down to the cafeteria to grab a soda. You want me to grab you anything while I'm down there?"

But Noin shook her head. "You know food isn't allowed in here."

Hilde rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but I also know you're physically capable of stepping out of the room, eating a sandwich, sterilizing again, and coming right back in. You know, the way I'm about to."

"Thanks," Noin chuckled, "but I think I'll manage."

"Whatever you say," Hilde warned. "However, I feel it's only fair to warn you that if I don't see you eat something solid in the next two hours, I'm hauling you out of the room myself and cramming that sandwich down your throat, even if I have to suffocate you in the process."

Noin spared the younger woman a glance, a mischievous smile on her face. "And just what do you think you'll tell that scary lady that controls our lives if she finds out you killed me?"

"I'm so sorry, she choked on an Oreo."

Laughing, Noin shooed her companion away. As entertaining as the young woman could be, they were still in an area where they were meant to keep their voices down, and there were other parents quietly watching over their own small children. Continuing on in front of them would have simply seemed wrong.

As Hilde left the room, Noin turned her eyes once more to her baby boy. "So here you are," she softly spoke, her voice so low it was barely audible. "You scared me so much when we brought you into this world. You were so small, and you looked so weak, and they wouldn't even let me hold you before they had to put you in here. And when no one would tell me anything about you, I thought there was a good chance that I might end up losing you before I ever got to look at you.

"But you came through fighting, didn't you?" she praised. "You wouldn't give up, even though you're all brand new. I wish your daddy was here, because I know he would be so proud of you for fighting so hard and making it so far. You'll see him someday, I promise, and I just know that he'll love you as much as I do. And you are so lucky, because you already have people that love you so much. You've got me, and you already got to meet one of your aunties. But do you know what? You've got a whole bunch of aunties and uncles who are going to love you so much that they won't even know what to do. And don't worry, at first you might think they're crazy, but then you'll find out they're only lunatics."

With a loving sigh, she rested her forehead against the clear plastic casing to the bassinet. "You've already come so far," she said with a smile, "and I don't doubt for a moment that you're going to make it all the way."

/

Hilde continued to massage her sore back as she approached the elevator. She wanted to be there for Noin, and looking at the kid was certainly fun, but there had to be a more spine friendly way for her to get those two goals accomplished. In the weeks it had been since the boy was born, she had been spending large parts of the day bent over that tiny, sterile unit. It was, quite literally, a pain.

She pressed the button and sighed as her fingers managed to loosen up a particularly tight muscle. Every once in a while she cracked an eye open to see if the down arrow had lit up, though she honestly knew it was a pointless effort. That bulb had been burned out for the past few days, and in the grand scheme of things a hospital staff needed to keep maintained, it was understandable that a single elevator bulb was not high up on the list.

Eventually she heard the telltale bell of the elevator door opening, and she was so worn that she did not bother checking if it was going up or down before walking on. It was not until the doors were closing that she realized that the lift was set to go all the way to the top floor. "Oh, perfect," she grumbled.

"Going down?" a voice behind her asked.

Hilde's sore spine went rigid. She knew that voice, and she knew it well. She had been vaguely aware that there had been another person on board when she had entered, but her eyes had barely been open at the time. Had she been looking at all, she would have recognized him on sight.

Casually, she lifted her arm and leaned it against the wall, tilting her head forward and letting her dyed, shaggy hair fall in front of her face. If he had recognized her face when she had first walked on, he was not mentioning it. However, Hilde knew she had to take any precautions left open to her. "Thought I was," she huffed, deliberately making her voice lower and more hoarse. "Gonna have to get off on the next floor to fix that."

The man did not say anything as they reached the next floor, and Hilde carefully kept her back to him as she got off. Her movements were slow and careful until she was sure the elevator was closed, and that she was alone. Then she broke into a dead sprint, going for the stairwell as fast as she could. As she ran back toward Noin, only one thought could get through Hilde's suddenly overwhelmed mind:

_What the hell is Trowa doing here?_


	22. Chapter 22

Hilde took the stairs four at a time on her way down, landing only twice per platform before slamming her way through the door to the floor beneath her stop. There was no way to know whether or not Trowa had recognized her in the elevator, and until she had confirmed it one way or the other, she had to be on alert. If he did not know, then there was a chance that hiding on the maternity floor would protect them. There was no reason at all for him to look in on a floor of laboring women and crying newborns. And if he did know…well, then they were just screwed. There was literally no way they could run away again. With a newborn in the NICU, they were stuck right where they were. They were caught.

As she wove her way down the hall, a small part of her mind wondered if it really would be so terrible if they were, in fact, found out. True, Zechs was still gone, and the risk of attack was still there. However, the child had already been born, and Noin, always armed, never left that child's side. Even if their enemies did, somehow, find out about all of it, they were well protected. And besides, it was Trowa. The odds of him telling anyone at all were not all that high, and even if he did mention his findings, it would likely be contained to the Gundam pilots.

Slowing down to a power walk, Hilde made her way back to the neonatal intensive care unit. It took a little time for her to get cleaned and suited up to enter, but as soon as she was able, she approached Noin. She leaned in close and dropped her voice, ensuring that no one but Noin would hear her. "I would like to preface my announcement with this statement: the problem has nothing to do with your son, the boy is fine, and he is in no danger."

"Oh, this is going to be good," Noin sighed. "Alright. How bad are we talking here?"

Taking a deep breath, Hilde very quietly whispered, "03 was in the elevator with me."

Noin barely managed to control her outburst of shock. Trowa was here? In the hospital? In the elevator _with Hilde_? Had they been tracked down again? Maybe when they registered for the birth they let something slip, something one of the boys had been able to pick up on. Maybe they had not been as far under the radar as they had thought they were. Maybe the mission was over and they had sent someone to tell them face to face…

It was a lot of maybes, though, many of which contradicted one another. Without any warning from Une, it was likely that Trowa was there without her knowing about it. And if he was there without Une knowing about it, then there was no way that they were supposed to be found by him. Unfortunately, Noin very quickly arrived to the same conclusion Hilde had. As long as the child needed direct medical attention, and was unable to travel, they were stuck right where they were.

"We can talk when we go down for lunch," she finally replied, her voice betraying none of the anxiety in her heart. They needed a plan, but they were not alone, and suddenly leaving would certainly draw attention to them. They would wait a few minutes, and they could talk in the elevator as quickly as they could.

And they did. Though it pained Noin to do so, she knew she had to leave the child alone in order to talk with Hilde in private. She swore she would not be gone long, though. Trowa being in the building could mean that there was someone else there, as well. Leaving her child alone for too long was an invitation for trouble. They made their way to the elevator, and as the doors closed before them, they jumped into conversation.

"We can't leave," Noin quickly pointed out.

"Agreed," Hilde responded. "But we need to avoid him at all possible costs."

"Reason for being here?"

"Unknown."

"Did he know it was you?" Noin pressed.

Hilde paused only for a second before answering, "Unknown. I turned my face when I recognized him. I didn't get a good look at his reaction to me."

"Damn," Noin grit out. "Suggestions?"

"None so far," Hilde reluctantly admitted. "Drawing a total blank."

A ding rang out in the lift, and they knew their talk was over. They had not reached the ground floor yet, but someone else was getting on. The new additions were strangers, an older couple who, they gathered, had been visiting a friend. As long as there were witnesses, they could not discuss anything.

As they reached the ground floor, Noin anxiously glanced out of the elevator. "I should go back," she said.

"No," Hilde immediately countered. "You need food, and you're going to eat food. If you don't want the kid to be alone, I can go back. But if you go back now, I'm never going to get you to eat. When you start heading back, I'll come down and meet you." It was unspoken, but clearly understood, that they would talk again when Noin was done with her meal.

Though Noin was not necessarily happy about the arrangement, she knew the younger woman had a point. "Fine," she sighed. "Expect me in five minutes."

Hilde shook her head. "There's going to be a line. I'll expect you in ten."

"Fine," Noin sighed again.

Hilde frowned as she watched the mother walk away. Noin was clearly still worn out physically and emotionally, and she was definitely lagging. But she was a big girl, and Noin, even off her game, could still handle herself and protect herself. Hilde had her own task to get to. Wearily, she retreated once more into the elevator, trying to force her mind to jump start again. Over and over again she could repeat the situation, but she could not seem to force herself to move beyond the problem into solving it.

"Damn it," she hissed, lightly punching the inside of the elevator. "Why? Why now? Why here?"

The doors opened again to the maternity floor, and with tired legs, Hilde trudged back toward the room the little boy slept in. She would keep a careful watch on the boy, and protect him from anything that she could deem a threat.

/

Duo shook his head as the medical examiner pulled back the sheet, revealing another John Doe. "Sorry, that's not him," he told the man.

"Well," the doctor said, covering the body and sliding it back into storage, "I'm sorry that we couldn't be more help to you. But I am thankful that we did not find your friend here. That means there is still hope that you will find him alive and well."

The braided man opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. "Sorry," he apologized again. "Guess I forgot to turn it off before I came down here."

But the doctor hardly seemed bothered by it. "There is nothing to worry about here," he assured. "By all means, take the call."

With a polite nod, Duo reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "You kinda caught me at a bad time," he told the caller, forgoing any formal greeting. He paused and listened, his eyebrows pulling together all the while. "I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right. Could you repeat that?" Another pause, and Duo's jaw went slack. The medical examiner could not make out the specifics of the call, but he could hear enough to know that the person on the other end was attempting to gain the braided man's attention.

"Son, I believe this is the part where you say something," he teased.

Duo blinked, his brain still trying to catch up with everything. "Huh?" he softly responded. "Oh, sorry." Turning his focus back to the phone, he simply asked, "Where?" Soon enough, he seemed to be back in control. "Okay, keep an eye on it. I'll be there soon." He clipped his phone shut and stared at the cool, steel doors of the autopsy wall. "I…have to go. Sorry."

"Don't worry about a thing," the older man answered. "I only wish that I could offer you some answers in your journey."

The pilot nodded, still trying to think clearly. "You've done more than enough," he assured, moving for the door. "Look, I feel really bad about doing a cut and run here, but…"

"It is fine," the doctor interrupted. "That phone call sounded urgent. You should probably spend more effort in getting to the root of that than standing here apologizing to me for an offense you have not committed. Good luck, my boy."

"Thanks!" Duo called out, dashing out of the room. His mind was spinning as he reached the staircase, taking them four at a time as he rose higher and higher in the building. Could it be true? Could the intel be right? He had to see with his own eyes, but for the first time in months, he dared to hope. Faster and faster he ran, thankful that in a hospital, the stairs were usually abandoned in favor of the elevators. If what he had heard was correct, then he was almost at his destination.

Forcing himself to slow down as he left the stairwell was physically painful for him. There was a built in sense of urgency in his veins, and normally that sense came with being under fire. Feeling that way without being shot at was foreign to him, and he had to concentrate hard to keep from moving on autopilot. As calmly as he could, he rounded the corner, his mind not fully trusting what his eyes told him.

There she was…

It was Hilde. Even with her new hair and her back turned, Duo knew it was her. The way she stood, the way she moved, it had to be her. She was inside the neonatal intensive care unit, telling Duo just about all he needed to know about Noin's condition, and he would bet anything that his girlfriend was watching over that child. Standing behind the glass, looking in, he silently willed her to turn around. _Just let me see your face,_ he wordlessly begged. _Let me really look at you again…_

She knew someone was there. Hilde had seen the quick movement of his approach and deliberately kept her back to the onlooker. She had not confirmed that it was Trowa looking in, but she could not risk turning her head to look. If it was a stranger, then there would be no problem. However, there was not one member on Trowa's team that would not be able to identify her, no matter how thorough she had been in changing her looks. They knew her and they knew her well. She could not chance it.

"Look at me," Duo whispered from the other side. "Look at me…"

Hilde refused to turn. She saw the form move from her peripheral vision, and she seamlessly adjusted herself to maintain her pose. Nothing but her back and her hair were visible to the onlooker. Without visual confirmation if the watcher was friend or foe, Hilde had to assume the worst. She ran a mental checklist of everything that was at her disposal to defend herself and the child, should it prove necessary. There were three knives she always kept with her, hidden within her clothing, but she was not carrying a gun. Tubes and cords in the NICU could be used in a pinch, but she would save those for a last resort. It would be terrible to risk accidentally depriving one of the children of a life sustaining substance, one she would only take if there was no other option. Monitors could be used as weapons, but it would require the extra few seconds to rip out cords before they would be usable.

Duo frowned. Yes, it was definitely his girlfriend, but she clearly was not giving in. He briefly considered entering the unit, but common sense won out in the end. After all, what good could come from his waltzing in and greeting her? She would still be bound to her position, she would still be unable to acknowledge him, and he could very easily be unnecessarily endangering the lives of infants. All in all, it was a terrible idea.

Though they had never gotten great specifics on Noin's pregnancy, they did know enough for Duo to correctly conclude that it was far too early for a term birthing. Hilde's watchful presence in that room only confirmed that something, somewhere along the line, had gone wrong, and a hint of guilt began to form in his heart. It was hard for him to deny the intensity with which he had been hunting them, an intensity that had forced them to relocate at bare minimum one time more than they otherwise would have. The shuttle ride that had gotten them to their first location would have been about as much as any expectant mother should have gone through. Noin had done it multiple times, something that could easily have contributed to complications.

Bowing his head, Duo moved his right hand in the sign of the cross. "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti," he clearly spoke, beginning a prayer for child and mother. It had been a long time since he had said the words out loud. In fact, he had not spoken them since his days living at the church. But something inside of him told him to do it, that there was a need for it.

Hilde suddenly sat up straight. The glass window to the NICU was not soundproof, and she had heard his voice. Could it be? Could Duo truly be standing behind her? Could she risk looking to see if the man she had technically snuck out on really was right there? No, she could not risk directly turning to him, but an idea crossed her mind. There was a stainless steel container not far from her that, if she was lucky, would reflect the image of her onlooker. Turning her head to look carefully at it would reveal too much, but her phone could be angled toward it. Keeping her hand sheltered by her body, she pulled the device from an inside jacket pocket, silently snapping the picture.

The image was slightly blurred and grainy, but she had her confirmation. It was Duo, less than a dozen feet behind her and looking right at her. For months she had yearned to be by his side again, and there he was, with nothing she could do about it.

Watching on, Duo maintained his silent vigil. He had seen her reaction to his voice, and knew she wanted them to be reunited as badly as he did. With determination, he spread his feet slightly apart and made himself comfortable. He would not leave from that spot until Hilde left the room. He knew it might compromise her mission, but he could not help it. Having obsessively looked for her since her disappearance, there was nothing that would convince him to leave. He needed her again, if only for a moment. He needed to hold her, to touch her, to smell her, to tell her how much he loved and missed her, and to likely chastise her for leaving in the first place. It would be done calmly, he swore to himself. She would leave the room for any of a dozen reasons, and he would follow at a safe distance until he found a good closet or elevator shaft to sneak them into. He would not risk letting anyone else know his affiliation with the girl.

But he was not leaving without talking to her, no matter what.


	23. Chapter 23

"Excuse me, would you mind if I joined you?"

She had seen him enter the room. She had even seen him approaching her specifically. But there had been no way for her to avoid him without making it look like she was running away, and that would have caused a scene that would have been miserable for all parties involved. Playing as innocent as she could, Noin looked up and asked, "Excuse me?"

Taking a step closer to the table, Trowa gave the woman a very subtle smile. "I don't mean to impose," he explained, "but all the other tables are occupied, and I was hoping that maybe I could share this one with you, Miss."

_He's playing along,_ Noin realized. _He's not going to give me away._ "Oh, of course," she finally answered. After all, what other answer to she give to such a reasonable request made in front of an audience?

"Thank you," he politely accepted, taking a seat. The table was tense as the two ate silently for several minutes, allowing them to finish their food before the green eyed pilot broke the ice again. "I am here with a friend," he casually offered. "Are you just a visitor here, too?"

Noin could clearly tell that the young man was trying to glean information from her. She picked her words carefully, knowing that he was very much an ally, but still outside of the need-to-know ring. "I'm also a visitor," she informed him. "Have you and your friend been here long?"

Trowa shook his head. "No, my friend and I are only here for the day. In fact, we should be gone fairly soon, and barring some strange catastrophe, we won't be back."

His message was loud and clear to the woman. "Oh," Noin responded with a soft smile. "Well, I'm glad that you guys don't have to stay long. I don't think anyone enjoys a prolonged hospital stay."

"Yes, I would guess you're right," the other pilot agreed. "I know I would certainly hate to stay here any longer than necessary, even if I happened to be the healthy visitor." As quietly as he had taken his seat, he rose from it. "Well, it was very nice to meet you, Miss, and I certainly hope that whoever you are here with makes a quick recovery."

"Thank you," Noin answered.

Trowa nodded. "Any time, Miss." They exchanged a look, and Trowa's message was not lost. He knew that Noin could be found at the hospital, and even if they were not allowed to talk about why she was there, he would remain, as ever, an ally. All she need do was ask, and the boys would be there to help in a heartbeat.

They did not speak again as the young man turned and left the room. It was an odd encounter, one that Une should have put up more of a fight against, but it was still nice to know there were willing and able allies available to Noin, should the situation arise.

The new mother frowned as something occurred to her. It was not that Une _should_ have done something more, it was that Une _would_ have done something more. Their commander would have never agreed to send the boys out to that location unless there was concrete evidence that there was something vital to the mission in the area. But as far as Noin was aware, their region had nothing to do with the original mission. Quickly, she returned to her son.

What was going on?

/

Neither of them spoke a word as they went down the hall. They did not make eye contact, did not glance toward one another or acknowledge each other in any way as they quietly continued on their way. She took the lead, her steps firm and confident, guiding him without anything but her strong presence. He followed, taking in her every movement. They seemed ordinary enough to onlookers, as though they had never before met. But that was far from the truth. Still, they were well out of sight of anyone else by the time they had ducked into the closet.

"Where the hell have you been?" Duo whispered, tightly wrapping his arms around his girlfriend.

Hilde responded in kind. "I'm so sorry I couldn't tell you," she sincerely apologized. "It all happened so fast, and you know what it means when…"

"Yeah, yeah, it's all crazy hush-hush," the braided pilot interrupted. "If you think I'm upset with you, don't worry about it. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. But man, I don't think I've ever been so crazy as I've been without you all these months."

"I know what you mean," Hilde sighed, leaning her head against his chest. "I think I've been on the verge of driving Noin nuts since the first day I showed up on her doorstep. I swear, I've been going through withdrawal."

Duo leaned in and kissed her deeply. "I know you're doing this for all the right reasons," he said, never fully removing his mouth from hers, "and I know that this was an important mission, but in the name of all that is good and worth fighting for, never be gone from me for this long again!"

"No more missions," she swore. "This is the last one, I swear."

Her boyfriend pulled back reluctantly, knowing that their time was extremely limited and that information had to be passed quickly. They both knew that they would likely not get a chance to speak again until everything was said and done. "Army's been taken care of, never found the commander or Zechs, out looking for both."

"Kid a couple months early," Hilde quickly answered. "Heart problem, needs surgery, can't leave area for a few months. All else fine."

"Damn," he swore. "Is it serious?"

Hilde shook her head. "Only if left untreated," she assured. "It sucks, but we caught it, so there's be plenty we can do in order to keep it from getting too ugly. Everything should be just fine."

Duo nodded, mostly to himself. "That still sucks," he sighed. With a frown, he glanced down at his watch. "If I don't check in soon, they're going to look for me and find you."

"Do you have any leads?" the young woman quickly asked. "Is that why you're here?"

"Outside shot of intercepted coordinates," he agreed. "Haven't checked most of this spot yet, though. We can hope."

She gave him one last kiss. "Good luck. You bring him home, and I'll bring the other two back."

"Then we will never speak of this again," her boyfriend teased. He ran his hand along her cheek and gave her a long, loving look before ducking out of the closet, leaving her behind.

Hilde sighed, leaning the back of her head against the cool wall of the closet. That wonderful moment they had shared would have to suffice her for goodness only knew how long. It could be weeks, probably months, before they would be able to see one another again. It was nothing shy of a miracle that they had managed to get even that. But there was little time to revel in the moment. She could not leave Noin alone for long, and she had to return to her post. She had a mission to do, and she would not fall through.

/

Trowa closed the driver's door to the car, his eyes straight ahead. It was not difficult to see Duo's exaggerated posture through his peripheral vision, and correctly assumed that it would only be a matter of seconds before the other pilot began talking.

"I can't believe it," Duo muttered. "I just can't, well, _believe_ it. I spend months and months using every resource at our disposal to try to find my girlfriend, and we find her by _coincidence_?"

His green eyed companion simply shrugged one shoulder. "While I normally would agree that it is severely statistically improbable for something like this to happen, I have found myself over the past few years able to believe more and more in luck." When Duo shot him an incredulous look, Trowa let out a soft breath. "I am not saying that I would forgo all statistical analysis of a given situation and simply let an inexplicable force such as luck guide me. All I am trying to say is that you and I are both living proof that just because something is unlikely does not make it impossible. How many missions did we go on that we did not believe we would return from?"

"Yeah, I get that," Duo responded. "What I don't get is why _you're_ the one saying it. From me or Quatre, yeah, that's all fine and dandy. We're just like that. But you? What, is Wufei going to finally learn how to relax and Heero's going to understand what a day off is?"

"Very funny," Trowa simply answered, his voice as calm and level as ever. "Besides, it is not as though you are particularly upset about this opportunity. We have been able to glean key information that we have been searching for, information that may or may not end up being vital to our mission."

The braided man shook his head. "Yeah, I know. I'm just a little miffed that after all that work and all that searching, I got two minutes to talk with her in a broom closet and that's it. We both know I can't swing by and say hi whenever I want to. It's like a mixed blessing, you know? Yeah, I finally got to see her, and yeah, I know where she is and that she's safe. But at the same time, it actually hurts a little more knowing that I've pinpointed her location and I can't do anything about it. She has to remain as gone to me now as she was before. I just happen to know where to look."

Trowa nodded slightly. "I do not envy your predicament." A moment of silence passed between the two before he brought up the inevitable question. "Do we report to Une that we found the girls?"

Duo snorted. "She didn't tell us where they were, did she?"

"That is not what I asked."

"Yeah, well, that's what I'm answering. If she wouldn't trust us enough to know where they were before, she's not going to trust us with knowing where they are now." He shook his head, his long braid waiving like a snake down his back. "She'd probably try to force them to move again, and we both know damn well that with the kid the way he is, that's not going to happen. A move now can't end well for them, and Une's not going to let them stay put if she knows."

Trowa considered the information. "We still need to acknowledge the possibility that they may inform Une of our meeting."

But Duo seemed unconcerned. "They made it clear that their top priority is that boy, and they're both smart enough to figure out what'll happen if they phone this one in. They're not going to do anything that'll risk putting that kid in any more danger than he's already in."

"Speaking of which," the green eyed driver interrupted, "what, exactly, is the issue with the child? I did not get a lot of information out of Noin, nor did I attempt to."

"Didn't expect you to," Duo excused. He sighed yet again, his shaking head making his braid wave once more. "Hilde said that he's got some kind of heart defect. It's serious if they try to move him too much now, or if they ignore it, but she seemed pretty sure that with proper treatment, he'll be fine. Seemed like they had it all under control until we showed up."

Starting the engine, Trowa pulled out of their parking spot, heading to where the remainder of their team should be. "Do you think we should inform the others?"

That question had Duo hesitating. "I don't know," he reluctantly answered. "Heero would be willing to do anything for the good of the mission, and I think all three of us would agree that keeping this little rendezvous to ourselves is, overall, the best choice we could make from a mission standpoint. He'd keep it to himself. But Wufei…"

He trailed off, but his sentence did not need to be finished. Wufei had become an unbelievable stickler for protocols. While he had been willing to overlook something he deemed a trivial slight to the regulations, such as Duo's seemingly futile search for Hilde, it seemed unlikely that he would not report something as serious as a physical confrontation with two agents that were meant to be out of sight, out of mind. True, there was a possibility that he would be able to still his tongue, but could they really take that chance?

"Let's keep this between you and me for now," Duo eventually concluded.

Silently driving, Trowa nodded. While he was not in favor of keeping secrets within the group, there was far too much at stake to do otherwise.

/

"What a miserable waste of time," Wufei grumbled. "No indicators at all of our target."

Heero had to fight to keep from rolling his eyes, a trait he had picked up over the years from Duo. His Chinese partner had been grousing about their assignment almost the entire time, stating statistical reasoning behind why their efforts on the colony were futile. They had gone on their expedition with minimal information and even less optimism in a vain hope to find a man infamous for his long term disappearing acts. Wufei had made no secret of the fact that he was not expecting anything at all to turn up from their mission, and so far, he was right.

However, that did not mean that Heero enjoyed listening to it. Wufei in a bad mood could outtalk Duo in a good mood, and was not nearly so entertaining. Heero agreed with most of what his comrade was telling him, though. When Zechs wanted to disappear, regardless of the reasoning behind it, he would stay gone until he was good and ready to make some grand entrance. It was not the first time such a thing had happened, and the Japanese pilot doubted that it would be the last. But after several hours of hearing complaints on the subject, Heero was getting ready to pull a gun on Wufei, if nothing else to change the subject.

"I contacted Trowa," he interjected, hoping to at least stall the grousing. "He is tracking our location and coming to pick us up."

Wufei hardly seemed appeased. "And then what?" he hissed. "We go to another section of the colony, looking for someone that clearly is not here? Our time and our resources would be better spent back at Headquarters, working on the next threat." While he had not said anything specific enough to the case to give away the nature of their mission, Heero had a sinking suspicion that behind the soundproof doors of their vehicle they would start on the next stage of the lecture. Again, Heero could sympathize with the root of the complaint. Their main mission with the underground army was, in fact, complete. They had spent countless time confirming what tools the general had been equipping his troops with, who had been working for him, and identifying the bodies of those lost in the outbreak. The main threat itself did seem to be over, and it was understandable that Wufei would be frustrated that instead of keeping a watchful eye for a new problem, they were hunting down one final loose end that, on its own, seemed relatively harmless.

But whether or not Mathis was harmless was yet to be seen, and without any proof that he was dead or confined, they had to maintain their vigilance. Yes, the odds were likely that the old man had run his course, but his body was not recovered at the compound. And with Zechs missing as well, they could not rule anything out.

While he disliked thinking about it, Heero had been letting a particular notion float through his mind more and more over the passing months. It was something everyone was aware of, but no one liked to speak of. Zechs had a history, in times of emotional stress, of making radical decisions that brought ruin to many. There was a possibility that, given time with the general, Zechs had decided that there was merit behind his plan, and that he would see it through to the end. It did not seem highly likely, given the stability the man had maintained over the years, but it had to be acknowledged. And on top of all of that, the man had a son he likely did not know about, given the time of his assignment. Noin was expecting them to bring her lover home to her. She had faith in him, had faith in their family. She always had. And no matter what Zechs did, she would never be able to fully turn on him.

If Zechs had, in fact, become their enemy once again, would they be willing to stop him?


	24. Chapter 24

Duo groaned as he and Trowa rolled the car into their last stop. They had spent a week carefully following their lead, poor as it had been, and so far they had experienced no luck toward their ultimate goal. And odd as it seemed to him, he had been having a far harder time being away from Hilde now that he knew where she was. The temptation to turn around and go back to her was almost unbearable at times. It made focusing on the task at hand virtually impossible. "If he's not here, I'm getting Heero to help me make a hologram of him and we're calling it even."

Trowa shook his head. He had been listening to his friend grow increasingly agitated, and it had not been easy to live with. He felt for his friend, he really did, but if there was one more day of pining then someone was going to be shot. "It is our final known possibility," he reasoned. "If he isn't here, we will be forced to go back anyway."

"Yeah, but not finding him does not get my girlfriend home," Duo griped. "This is so not fair. Zechs runs away or gets kidnapped or dies or whatever, so I have to suffer. Whoever decided this was a good idea is a sadist."

"No one said Une wasn't," Trowa casually answered.

That at least got a small smile out of his friend. Taking shots at Une and her legendary moods was a common bonding theme among virtually all who had ever heard of her. Few dared to say such things near the woman, though Duo seemed to hold no such concerns. He usually seemed more than willing to face any repercussions his comments might bring as long as it meant he got to say what he thought. "Come on," the braided pilot finally said. "Let's get this done and over with."

It was the same routine they had done at every hospital they had been to. Ask about John Doe's, double check the morgue, thank hospital personnel kindly when nothing turned out. It was almost a well rehearsed play to them. They walked in casually, Duo gave the introductions, and the attendant at the information desk summoned someone who could help with their request. A younger doctor was sent to them, as was often the case. He asked for a description of the comrade Duo asked for, another common move. But for the first time the description did not get the two young Preventers a head shake and a 'Sorry, boys'. In fact, the doctor looked downright surprised.

"Yes, actually," he hesitantly responded. "We do have a John Doe that fits that description a bit. He might not be the guy you're looking for, but, well…"

Trowa and Duo were caught off guard. They were so used to hearing no that a maybe seemed downright impossible. "Wait, what?" Duo asked. "He might actually be here?" He grinned widely. "Well hot damn! Where is he?"

"Mind you, I said that he fits the description," the doctor cautioned. "You know that it might not be your friend." He swallowed nervously before he quietly went on. "If it is, I feel obligated to inform you that his condition is not great. He is alive, but, well, he's been here for a while."

Both Preventers knew what was not being said. A John Doe who had been a resident for an extended period of time would probably be comatose, and long term comas were often a sign that, if he ever woke up, there would like be permanent damage. Suddenly they were no longer so excited that they might have found him. "Can you take us to him?" Trowa softly asked. "We may be able to identify him." They were all quiet as they entered the elevator, none of them knowing what to say, none of them knowing if they hoped it was him or not.

/

"You have to name him," Hilde gently chided.

Noin rolled her eyes. Her son was doing quite well, all things considered. He had an excellent prognosis, and though he had to have a heart monitor on and an oxygen tube, he seemed to be as happy as a boy that young could be. During the moments in the day he was calm enough to be held, he would nuzzle against his mother tenderly and make little noises that overshadowed the beeping noise of his well tracked heart. He was small, there was no denying that, but all things considered he seemed to be doing quite well. Noin knew that she had to give her little one a name soon, but she still could not bring herself to do it without her partner. Zechs had helped make the boy, and she felt that he more than needed to be present for the naming. Hilde had heard the case, but as time had gone on, the younger woman had started pushing harder.

"Not yet," was the firm defense.

Hilde looked down at the baby in Noin's arms. "He's going to be old enough to enlist before you name him at this rate," she pushed on. "I know what you're waiting for, but you know as well as I do that those conditions might not be met for quite a while. Are you honestly telling me that you're planning to have him called 'Baby Boy' for however long that takes?"

"Oh, I don't know," Noin jokingly replied. "I'm starting to grow kind of fond of 'Monkey Face'. Maybe I should just name him that?"

"Yes, great, sounds like a plan. I'll go get that woman who was going to make the birth certificate and…"

Noin rolled her eyes again. "I'm joking, you idiot."

Hilde leaned in and whispered in the senior pilot's ear, "What does it matter anyway? We're going to have to get a fresh one when this is all done and over with anyway, so just go with whatever you feel like. You can discuss a _real_ one afterwards."

It was true enough, but still it did not feel right to Noin. It felt as though she would be somehow going behind Zechs' back. But Hilde did make a valid point. She was entered into the hospital under an assumed name, and as such whatever birth certificate she left with would be fraudulent. A new one would certainly need to be created. With a tired sigh, she nodded slightly. "I'll think about it," she finally relented.

"What are your ideas?" It was a question that had been killing the younger woman. After all, there was only so much they could talk about in the public place they were constantly caught in. Baby names in a NICU would be nothing unusual.

With a slight shake in her head, Noin sighed. "I don't know," she said. "I just haven't had anything really come to me so far. There were a few I thought about before he was born, but now that I've seen him and I can hold him, none of them seem to fit. I don't even have a short list to work from."

"Then this would be an excellent time to come up with one, wouldn't it?"

Noin shook her head again. "I need to get you a book or something," she grumbled.

But Hilde just gave a cocky smirk. "Yes, I think a baby name book would be a great thing right now. Would you like me to see if there is one in the gift shop? I promise I won't be gone long. In fact, I bet you'll feel like I was barely gone at all!"

With a groan, Noin shot her younger counterpart a look. "Has anyone ever told you that you're becoming more and more like your evil other half as time goes on?"

"Yes," Hilde affirmed. "In fact, you've been really, really good about reminding me. And I am choosing to take that as a compliment. So would you like me to get you the book?"

Noin considered her options. Saying yes would get Hilde out of the room for a couple minutes, and Noin would have been lying if she claimed that constantly having company was not a nuisance. But once she returned, the book would be there and would not go away, fueling the baby name debate for days to come. "Can I convince you to pick up something else? Like a trashy romance novel or something?"

Another smirk. "I don't know, can you?"

"Okay, can the spirit of your boyfriend, which seems to be possessing you, please vacate the conversation?" Noin griped. "I would like to speak to _you_."

"You are," Hilde pointed out. "I'm just using new methods to kill time."

/

The shuttle engines roared loudly. It had taken several calls and a lot of carefully worded explaining, but they had finally gotten their precious cargo onto a ship and headed back for the headquarters. They had found him. After months and months of searching, they had found him. He was battered, malnourished, comatose, and possibly suffering brain damage, but they had him. Zechs was finally in their custody.

But there was little sense of celebration in the hearts of the four Preventers that sat around him as their craft took off. Scroungers had managed to find their way into the otherwise abandoned military facility, where they had found the three men. Medical help was called, and they had been rushed to the nearest hospital. None of the three had carried any form of identification, and with the backlog of bureaucratic work in the government offices, it would have taken several more weeks before those three had their fingerprints run for identification. After all, they had been found by scroungers, looking worse for wear. There was no reason to believe there was any reason their identification would be more important than any other John Doe from the streets.

The general was as good as dead when they had landed. From what they had heard, they would not have been able to save him, even if emergency crews had been present at the time of the landing. And there was another young man, another soldier, who had suffered severe head trauma. He had been alive when found, but died a week later in the hospital. They had never found out who that man was. His prints would be run once they returned, for all the good it would do him.

Zechs had been the only one of them to survive. He had suffered massive blood loss, and the doctors believed that he had possibly gone too long without sufficient oxygen getting to his brain. They did not give excellent odds for him waking up, let alone being able to fully function again. There might not be anything more that could be done for him. But the Preventers had access to the best doctors known, and they were willing to try anything to help their fallen comrade.

As they sat around his barely stabilized body, the four young pilots remained silent. True, they wanted to save him. Even when he was their enemy they knew there would be a sense of loss if he had died. But the thing that troubled them the most was that someone was going to have to tell Noin. Noin, with the new child. Noin, who had been banished from the life she knew for the sake of mission safety. Noin, who had waited so long for the time she and Zechs could really start their lives together.

Une would probably tell her. It would be Une's responsibility, and the commander was not one to shy away. But Une was not usually a gentle person when it came to rough news. She was exceedingly business like about it. Some believed that it was because she enjoyed that level of bluntness, others thought she was protecting herself from showing any potential emotional vulnerabilities. In moments like that, though, where informing someone of a grim situation involving a loved one, the reasoning behind her bluntness seemed irrelevant.

And from Duo's report, it seemed that Noin would not be leaving the colony she was on for quite some time, regardless of Zechs' condition. That child would not be able to safely travel in a space shuttle for quite a while, and Noin would never leave her child behind. She was loyal, sometimes to a fault. Zechs had always come first before, but everyone knew that the child would now pull rank. She would not leave her boy behind, and she would not risk his wellbeing by taking him away from the environment he needed. If Zechs were too far gone to save, she might not even have the opportunity to say goodbye.

They were almost four hours into their flight when Wufei broke the silence. "What a waste." The other three slowly looked over at him, silently telling him to go on. "We were so busy preparing for a full scale war and so sure that we had a major threat on our hands, and everything took care of itself. We were useless."

"We accomplished our mission," Heero grimly pointed out. "Our threat has been confirmed as eliminated. The weapon was contained to that facility. The general is dead. The mission has been accomplished."

"But not because of us," Trowa softly chimed in. "One of the doctors instigated the lockdown and used their supply to kill off the soldiers, and those circumstances led to the victory. Our actions had little, if anything, to do in the prevention of this disaster."

Duo nodded, but he had something more to add. "We were the ones that hunted down Noin. We were the ones that found Zechs. We are the ones bringing Zechs back. We are the ones that are getting him the best medical care. We might not have been the big heroes of this round, but we weren't useless."

"Do you think that Hilde will return now?" Trowa asked.

"Doubt it," Heero bluntly answered. "The reason Noin was sent away in the first place was because of her connection to Zechs. She is still as connected to him as she was a day ago, and just as vulnerable. And as long as Noin is stuck where she is, and in that situation, it would be wisest to keep someone by her side. Hilde has been there since the beginning of this, it seems, and it would not make sense to suddenly change who was working with her."

Duo groaned. "Yeah, I wasn't in a bad enough mood already," he grumbled. With a sigh and a shake of the head he sat up straight. "Listen, there's got to be a way we can get everyone together. And yeah, I know, I know, we have better medical care than that hospital does, and if we're going to have any chance of waking Sleeping Beauty here up, we're going to need to use it. And I know that Noin's kid shouldn't travel in a shuttle for a few months. But damn it, guys, we need to find a way to get them all in one happy room! You want to do something? You want us to be useful? You think we haven't done enough so far? Fine! Let's get off our asses and figure this one out!"

The other three nodded, but remained silent. For all their intelligence, none of them could come up with a realistic way to make everything turn out in that happy way. They spent the rest of the flight bouncing ideas off of one another, but it was no use. Nothing they pitched could work. By the time they landed and watched their fallen comrade rushed off, they had all come to realize the same thing. The only way they could get everyone reunited was to wait and hope. Maybe Zechs would recover sufficiently enough to go see Noin and the new child. Maybe the boy would get well enough to be able to accompany his mother back to their home. Maybe everything would work out just fine.

But there was nothing they could do to help. All they could do was watch and wait.


	25. Chapter 25

Noin felt as though she had been struck. "I'm sorry," she softly spoke into the secure line, "could you repeat that?"

On the other end, Une closed her eyes. It had been difficult enough to say the first time, why must she repeat it? "We have found and retrieved him," she explained, "but he was seriously wounded. It appears to our medical staff that he has been in a coma for quite some time, but he is in stable condition currently. We are currently running tests to try to assess possible levels of brain function. I cannot confirm anything more than that at this time."

The pilot swallowed hard. The news that Zechs had been found was wonderful and terrible all at once. "Do you know when he will wake up?" she asked.

Silence met her.

Noin tightened her grip on the phone. "Une?" she tried again. "Do you know when he will wake up?" When again there was no response, Noin felt her stomach drop. "He is going to, isn't he?"

"I cannot confirm anything more at this time," Une repeated. What more could she say? They had no other information yet, and Une refused to give anyone false hope. If things were fine, she would say so. If things were dire, she would say that as well. But tests were still being run. Possibilities were still being considered. She was charted to be the first to know as soon as anything was confirmed, but as of that moment there was only uncertainty.

"Damn it, don't give me that!" the new mother hollered. "Tell me what you think!"

"I think I'm not a medical expert," Une quickly and firmly answered. "I think that we have only had a very brief amount of time to analyze our situation. I think that after all these years you should know me well enough to know that I would tell you if we had something, and that the reason I am not telling you anything is that there isn't anything to tell. I will keep you in the loop, Noin. Trust me, I will."

With a nod Noin lowered the phone from her ear and handed it off to Hilde. There was simply too much racing through her mind for her to stay rational during that conversation any longer. She needed to sit. She needed to think. She needed to give her overtaxed mind and body a chance to catch up with everything that had been happening over the past months. She was vaguely aware of Hilde's voice in the room, and that there was a lengthy, if not well worded, conversation happening. But there was no way for her to focus. If only her challenge had been a battle, a fight of some kind. No matter how hard the wars had been, she had maintained her ability to consider her options and next steps. Everything over the past weeks, though, had been new and foreign to her. She had never developed skills for such a thing.

When all was said and done Hilde closed the phone and slid it into her pocket. One glance at her friend told her that Noin was in no mood for anything, not even a calm discussion. So the younger woman simply sat down calmly in her chair and contemplated what their next move should be. There would be plenty of time to discuss it later.

Days turned in to weeks, and soon enough it was time for the young boy's first round of surgery. Noin had still not had the heart to give him a proper name, in spite of the fact that it would not have to be permanent. Even at the urging of the child's doctors, she simply could not bring herself to do it. It still felt somehow wrong to her. It almost felt like she would be betraying Zechs. She would be betraying his attachment to the child. She would be abandoning hope that he would be there to help her come up with a proper name. She would be claiming that her lover would never wake up. While Noin knew in her mind that none of that was real, her heart would not stop shouting at her. So Baby Boy lay in his incubator, still nameless as they prepared him for his work.

Noin quietly reached in and placed a finger in the child's small hand. She smiled as his tiny fingers wrapped around her. Her son was still small for his age, but he was far more alert than she would have guessed, and he reacted well to her. It was yet to not leave her with a sense of awe and wonder as the babe gripped her. And when he would open his eyes and gaze around and it would seem he was looking right into her, well those moments were amazing.

From behind her, Hilde smiled. "He's going to be fine," she assured.

"I know," Noin agreed. True enough, the prognosis was excellent. While any surgery had its inherent risks, Baby Boy was showing remarkable strength, all things considered. His doctors were confident that he would come through with flying colors, and that soon enough he would be well enough to travel. "Thank you, by the way."

"Don't worry about it," Hilde replied, her smile a gentle glow. The younger pilot and the little boy had matching blood types, and she had donated her blood for the surgery, an easy enough gift for her to give. Noin also had matching blood, but Hilde had insisted. Noin was still recovering from her pregnancy, and giving blood was not recommended at that time. It was a simple solution. "Besides, the little guy is totally worth it." _And I didn't lose so much that I couldn't shoot straight_ she mentally added.

Baby Boy gazed around the room, seemingly studying everything that was going on around him. He was a quiet baby, crying less than many of the others around him. His patience was almost unnatural, but it was something his mother was hardly complaining about. As he observed his surroundings, his eyes still only at half mast, he stuck his tongue out several times. It was something of a tradition for the child when he was in what was dubbed his contemplation mode.

All too soon the nurses had finished what they could with Noin there. It was heartbreaking to watch the child taken away for such a dramatic event, but Noin stood strong. No amount of anxiety would help her little boy in any way, and the doctors had assured her that the surgery would hold minimal risks, all things considered. As he was wheeled away, Hilde gave her friend a reassuring pat on the back. "He's going to be fine," she promised once more. "Absolutely fine."

/

The doctor scribbled something on his chart as he began his inspection of the unconscious man before him. He was on the second string of the medical team keeping a watchful eye on the former Prince of Sanc, and for good reason. He was one of the very few to actively voice his opinion that they were wasting time and resources on their patient. In his own opinion, which was a very valid one, the likelihood of Zechs ever waking up, let alone making a full recovery, were slim to nonexistent. Putting their best and brightest on what could very likely be a hopeless cause seemed like a poor idea to him. His mentioning of such a thing had gotten him severely reprimanded by the commander and nearly got him removed altogether from the case, but he was still one of the best in the field. Une would not sacrifice such a mind over an opinion, so long as the doctor kept with his assigned task. He was, however, relegated to the backup team.

"No change," the doctor sighed before putting the chart down. "Big surprise." He began going through his routine of checking vital signs and reflexes, hardly surprised when nothing seemed to be any different than it had been before. It was just as he had claimed when Zechs had first arrived: they could keep him stable well enough, but anything further was unlikely. Another notation was made. "This is not what I signed on for," he grumbled. The routine continued.

With an annoyed look on his face, he looked down at the face of the unconscious man. "Are you feeling any better?" he quietly mocked.

The man flinched.

The doctor's eyes grew wide. Was that a direct response? Was that even possible? "Can you hear me in there, sir? Can you understand what I am saying?" he asked.

Another small flinch, and an increased blip on the monitor tracking brain waves.

"Oh, God," the doctor muttered. Wasting no further time he reached into his pocket and pressed a button on his pager, signaling that he needed assistance immediately. Doctors and nurses rushed in, each one knowing exactly what they were to do within a few seconds of arriving.

Against all odds, it seemed that their patient was actually on the verge of waking up.

/

Trowa picked up the receiver after only a single ring of the emergency phone. He politely greeted the caller, and the remainder of the conversation was spent with him gently using phrases such as "I understand" and "I see". No true information was being given away on his end. None at all.

It was almost enough to drive Duo to violence. "For crying out loud, you damn mime!" he shouted. "What the hell is going on?"

The green eyed pilot ignored his comrade until the conversation was fully completed and he had hung up. "That was Une," he calmly began.

"Of course it was!" Duo cried. "No one else has the connection to that line. Now spill, what's going on?"

Trowa ignored his friend's outburst. "The medical team just contacted her," he went on. "It would appear that Zechs is starting to show an increased level of response to stimuli. They believe that this is a solid sign that he is on his way toward regaining consciousness."

"When will we know for sure?" Heero coolly asked.

"It's unclear," Trowa answered honestly. "It could be anywhere from a few hours to a few more weeks, depending on several factors that we won't know details about for a while. She said we would be kept in the loop."

"Probably because she knows Maxwell will camp out on her desk an harass her continuously if she doesn't," Wufei commented.

Duo spared a second to shoot his friend a dirty look. "You know, I would be so offended by that right now if it weren't completely true." He turned back to Trowa. "So what's the next step? What do we do now? Is she going to tell the girls? Is the kid okay? Can we go get them? Now?"

The one visible green eye rolled. "She will contact them, yes," he evenly explained. "That will be when she will hear how the surgery went. We will be given information of our next move after that."

"Calm down," Heero counseled the braided man.

While Duo normally displayed more energy and eagerness than his cohorts, most of it was an act out of personal preference. But since Hilde had been gone, and even more so since he had found out exactly where she was, he had developed a certain level of anxiousness that was not nearly as controlled as he would have liked. He knew that everything would turn out, and that everything would eventually end up just as it should be, but until then he would remain a little jumpier than usual. "No promises," he muttered in response to Heero's words.

/

Hilde had stepped away a bit to field the phone call from Une. It was difficult to keep from grinning as she heard of the progress Zechs was beginning to show. They were not in a position where she would be able to tell Noin of the news, and she did not wish to bring the woman any more anxiety by implying that there was, in fact, major news. Noin had enough on her mind at the moment. Good news, while always appreciated, would have to wait for a more appropriate moment.

To Noin it felt like an eternity before one of the surgeons emerged. "Ma'am," he greeted, smiling confidently at her, "everything went just fine. We repaired what we could for now, and your son came through with flying colors. He'll need to grow more before anything more can be done, but this should be enough to allow transportation to other colonies, or even planetside, should you desire, in a few weeks. He's a strong boy, ma'am. He's going to be just fine."

"Thank you," Noin graciously responded. "Can I see him?"

"We're going to take him back to the NICU," the doctor explained. "It's standard procedure to keep a patient like this under close observation for several days. And he will likely be asleep for another couple of hours. But he should be situated in ten to fifteen minutes, and you'll be able to see him then. We'll send someone to let you know as soon as he's ready for a visit from his mother."

Again Noin thanked him as he turned to leave. Once more alone with Hilde, she let out a sigh of relief. "I've got to admit," she said, "that I am so thankful that the hard part for now is done. I know we'll have a few more rounds of this down the road, but for right now we can relax."

"And it means that soon enough we can go home," Hilde mentioned, a soft smile on her face.

It was true. Within a matter of a few weeks Noin would be able to hold her son in her arms, board a shuttle, and fly back to the place she knew as home. And she would be able to stay by Zech's side as he recovered, something she remained confident he would do. That moment seemed so close to her then. Soon, so painfully, achingly soon, they could finally be the family that she knew they were meant to be.


	26. Chapter 26

"Name him!"

Noin groaned as she finished packing the bag. "Not this again…"

"Yes, this again!" Hilde insisted. "He has been alive for months now, and we're still living off of nicknames for him. Could you at least pick one focal nickname and stick with it? Because at this rate, he might actually end up stuck with the name Monkey Butt."

"I made that joke one time about the pants he was wearing," Noin defended. "They had a picture of a monkey on the fanny, and I called him Monkey Butt once. Therefore it is not his nickname."

But Hilde shook her head. "You said it, and it's on the table. If you didn't like it, you shouldn't have said it."

"How could I know what I felt about it before then?" the mother fought back. "Geez, you say one thing one time, and that's it? You can't do that!"

"Welcome to motherhood," Hilde teased. "You are going to spend the rest of your life watching what you say, because I can promise you that he's going to become a little parrot and repeat everything you say. I'm just getting you ready for that. It's called being a good friend."

Noin rolled her eyes. "It's called being a nuisance, that's what it is," she corrected. "And why are you trying to ruin my mood today? Life is good today. Just let me enjoy it."

While teasing the senior pilot was highly entertaining to the younger woman, she did indeed back off. After all, Noin was right. It was a good day, one they had waited a long, long time for. She had earned the right to savor the day. Hilde would simply have to find her source of entertainment elsewhere. "Here," she offered, still smiling, "let me help you with that. You rest for now."

"I'm alright," Noin defended. "I can take care of it."

"I know you can," Hilde kindly agreed. "I'm not trying to say that you can't. You are more than capable of taking care of this all on your own. But that doesn't mean you _have_ to do it all on your own. Let me help you out this time. You take a break, get a little snack, and enjoy the fact that the kiddo is peacefully napping. I will take care of this." Noin opened her mouth to protest, but Hilde cut her off. "Just for an hour, at least. If you're dead set and determined to work after that, I won't stop you."

Noin looked between her work and the other woman several times before sighing. "Fine," she relented. "I'll take a break. But if I fall asleep, I'm putting it entirely on you to wake me up in one hour's time. Understood?"

"Understood. Now go ahead and let me take care of this." She smiled as she took the bag from her counterpart. "Remember, it's a good day."

As she rolled out her shoulders and headed for the couch, Noin could not help but smile. It was happening. That day they had waited for so long had finally arrived.

Finally, they were going home.

/

Wufei tapped his arm impatiently. "Sit down, Maxwell!"

"No!" the braided pilot steadfastly refused. "I won't, and you can't make me. It has been way too friggin' long since I've seen Hilde, and if you think I'm going to calm down after this much time then you're dead wrong."

Trowa coolly leaned against the wall. "You do understand that pacing back and forth and bouncing around won't actually cause her shuttle to arrive any faster, right?"

Duo chose to ignore that particular point. "None of you understand what this feels like. And quite frankly, I think Une is damn lucky that I haven't killed her for this. I was finally getting me some and she took 'me some' away!"

Wufei groaned and got to his feet. "To hell with this," he muttered. "Someone call me when the shuttle is being unloaded. Not when it's approaching, not when it's landed. I don't want to come back until they are actually getting off the damn thing. I refuse to spend any more time with this raving lunatic."

"Spoil sport!" Duo called out as his friend retreated.

Seated calmly at a small table and sipping away at a good cup of tea, Quatre giggled. "I am very glad I was able to get away for today," he informed the others. "This is the most entertainment I've had in quite some time!"

Duo glared at him. "I am glad that my suffering is adding to your enjoyment," he grumbled.

"Happy to hear it!" the blond cheerfully replied, taking another sip.

In the corner, Heero was maintaining his usual position in front of his laptop. He was focusing just as hard on ignoring the others as he was on his work. He understood that it was an exciting day on an intellectual level, but it was simply not a part of his nature to get worked up over what, in the long run, seemed to be a trivial matter. Noin and Hilde were returning. Their shuttle from the colony had already arrived, and they had been boarded onto the private craft to take them to the headquarters building. It was a good thing. However, much as Trowa pointed out, there was nothing they could do on their end to cause the plane to move any faster, and therefore there was no reason to be in any way physically excited.

"Duo," Quatre offered with a smile on his face, "why don't you come over here with me and have a cup of tea? It will help settle your nerves."

The dark haired man shook his head. "No thanks."

But Quatre could not be dissuaded. "Come over here," he gently commanded. "Let me pour you some tea."

"I'm good," Duo replied.

"Duo," Quatre began again, "please come over here. I want to have tea with you."

Again, Duo denied him.

When Quatre opened his mouth again, he found himself interrupted by Trowa. "Just sit down and drink the damn tea with him," he bluntly told his braided friend. "You know he's not going to stop offering until you do."

"But…"

Before he could get another word out, Duo found himself being physically forced into a chair. "Sit. Drink. Shut up." Heero's commands could not have been clearer.

With a bit of a huff, Duo took the teacup that Quatre offered him. "I hope you know that I didn't mean any offense when I turned you down," he sheepishly told the blond.

"Oh, I know that," Quatre assured. "You're just tense, that's all. I promise, I was not offended in any way, shape, or form."

It was almost another thirty minutes before the plane came in for its landing. "They're here!" Duo cheered, popping out of the chair immediately.

Quatre lunged forward, barely managing to catch the suddenly airborne teacup before it hit anything. "Calm down!" he instructed.

Duo took a deep breath and fought for composure, but it was difficult. It had been just over a year since his girlfriend had been there. And seeing her once and only once in a three minute meeting in a broom closet that was kept to conversation and a few kisses did not count. If he had to wait another day for her return, he was going to suffer a cerebral hemorrhage.

All four pilots could clearly hear the ramp connecting to the plane, and Trowa quietly sent a message to Wufei letting him know that the conditions for his return had been met. Though the others were clearly more contained in their excitement than Duo, each one of them was quite happy that the girls were at last returning. They were a part of the team, and had been missed dearly. By the time the hatch to the ramp opened, all five Gundam pilots were waiting, standing in a simple line.

Hilde emerged first, carrying several large bags across her shoulders. Her hair was still colored, but Duo recognized her in a heartbeat. She had not even cleared the doorway entirely before she was swept up in his arms, and it took several reminders from their friends that they needed to clear the way.

As Noin walked in, the room became very quiet. Even Duo's shouts of joy suddenly dropped to a whisper as she entered, pushing a stroller in front of her. "Oh my God," Duo softly said, "can I see the little guy?"

"It's nice to see you again, too," Noin teased.

Duo waived her off in a joking manner. "Yeah, yeah, you're back, we love you, we missed you, great to see you. Now scoot, there's a kid to see!"

With a laugh, Noin pulled back on the visor of the stroller. "Try not get too in his face," she warned.

The pilots all leaned in to get a good look at the child, but quickly they were all wearing curious looks. "Um, Noin?" Quatre asked.

"It's just a protective measure," she explained, knowing exactly what the young men were wondering about. "The doctors were fairly confident that he could handle the shuttle rights okay, but we just wanted to be safe. It's specially pressurized."

"Okay, but he can come out of it, right?" Duo questioned. "I mean, no offense, but it looks a little strange when you've got a baby in a bubble in a stroller."

Noin gave him a mild glare. "It's not a bubble!"

"Yes it is," Duo and Hilde said in unison.

The mother huffed. "Well, if you don't want to look at him…"

"No, no, no, no, no!" Quatre quickly jumped in. "We'll be good, we promise!"

Slightly further back, but still holding interest, were Wufei, Trowa, and Heero. They were all pleased to see that the child was well and whatnot, but they had no real experience with children of any age. It was all foreign and strange to them, and to a certain degree it made them rather uncomfortable. They had clearly all known in advance that the baby would be there, but his impact on them was far more impressive than any of them had anticipated. As the child looked up at them quizzically, and proceeded to blow a small bubble with his saliva, Trowa leaned toward the other two and quietly asked, "Is that normal for them to do that?"

"I have no idea," Heero answered, just as quiet.

"It's normal," Hilde assured. "And you better get used to it."

"Yeah," Duo added, "babies do this all the time." When the others looked at him curiously, he shrugged. "What? There were a couple of them at the church when I was a kid. They blew spit bubbles. It's a lot cleaner than some of the other stuff they do."

Quatre leaned over the incubated stroller and made silly faces for the baby. "Oh, we don't mind," he sweetly assured the child. "We still love you, no matter what!"

"I see lots of baby-sitting in your future," Hilde teased.

Quatre lit up. "Can I?" he asked. "I don't get to do stuff like that, but I want to! Oh, Noin, can I watch him sometimes?"

"Let's get you used to working with small children first," she gently pointed out. "He's gurgling and cute right now, but I want to see how you'd handle him when he's a screaming wreck with a dirty diaper before I left you alone with him."

"Oh, agreed, agreed," the Arab cheerfully responded. "Is there anything that you need help with? Anything we can carry for you?"

Noin chuckled. "Thanks, but I think my pack mule over there has everything under control."

Hilde rolled her eyes. "Hee-haw!"

"You tell 'em, sweetie," Duo said with a laugh.

"Come," Trowa gently guided. "Let's help you get home."

With that, Noin and a protection detail of six headed back for her quarters. She was home. She was finally home.

/

"How bad is it?"

Une looked at her subordinate, her poker face well established. "I'm not going to lie to you," she bluntly informed. "While he is awake, and he can communicate, he has a long way to go before he will resume normal functionality. His speech abilities are, for the time being, somewhat limited. He is fully comprehensive, but it takes a while for words to come out. You will be able to get more specifics from his doctors, but I can tell you that he is fortunate to even be alive, let alone coherent. There is a good chance that he will, in time, be able to live a fully functional, normal life someday." Her eyes drifted slightly to the right, focusing on the wall. "A normal life, Noin. He will likely not be brought back to any form of active duty again."

The younger woman nodded grimly. Zechs was a born soldier. Spending his life doing something else would not be easy for him. "Are we absolutely sure that he's going to be grounded permanently?"

"The doctors have informed me that the likelihood of him making a full recovery is under one percent," Une informed. "And yes, that is taking into account his remarkable physiology."

"Does he know?"

Une looked away again. "Insofar as I know," she gently replied, "all he has been informed of up to this point is that it will take a long time and a lot of work for him to recover. He may or may not know about how far they believe he is capable of recovering."

Noin narrowed her eyes. "How do you not know?" she demanded. "Isn't it part of your job to know everything about all of us?"

"It is my job," Une explained, "to have a full understanding of any condition that my top people may have that could hold any effect on them. And I do. But whether or not the doctors have passed on that particular piece of information is not an immediate necessity, and I have not had time to demand hourly updates on what they are doing with him."

The younger woman nodded. As much as it upset her that Une could not answer her question, she understood. "I will act as though he has not been informed," she softly spoke, more to herself than to her commander.

With a nod, Une guided her to the door. "Enjoy a few minutes," she counseled. "You two have been through enough in your lives. Take a few minutes for yourselves."

As Noin left, she wondered just what was in store for her and her new family. They were so close to making it. It was starting to really pull together. But in her experience, that was usually when things fell horribly apart. For once in her life, could things truly work out for the best? That thought, though, was pushed aside by a more pressing matter. She had finally reached a moment she had long been waiting for. For the first time in a year, she was going to see Zechs.

And for that, she was smiling.


	27. Chapter 27

Noin took a deep breath, compensating for the short ones she had been living off of for the past twenty minutes, and let out a relieved sigh. "And, well, that's what's been going on with me for the last few months."

Zechs lay there and stared at his lover. Everything she had just told him seemed so surreal to him that he was partially convinced that he was back in his coma. There had been so much to process since he first awoke, but none of it had seemed too terribly extraordinary until that moment. As far as he had known, Noin had been off on assignment. Finding out that she had been sent underground due to an unplanned pregnancy, being forced to stay there far longer than intended, and the issues that their son faced…well, it was all rather much.

When he did not respond immediately, Noin began to get nervous again. Was he upset about something? Was the news that he was a father something that he was not happy about? Did he even understand her? Had she spoken too quickly for his still recovering system to even process? She had been aware that she had talked significantly faster than she usually did, and even if someone had not experienced everything Zechs had, they would probably have had a difficult time computing everything that quickly. If that was the case, should she start over again, and say it more slowly? Or would that be too insulting, whether it was needed or not?

The tension in the room reached an impressive high as neither lover knew what to say. A year's worth of radical life changes between the two of them had been put on the table in the span of about half an hour. They knew where they had been. They had no idea where they were going.

"So," Zechs finally responded, daring to be the first to speak, "have you named the child?"

Noin almost wanted to groan. A thousand things had changed between them, and the question he wanted to start with was the one that Hilde had been driving her mad with for countless weeks. It figured. "Not yet," she honestly answered. "It just seemed wrong to name him without you there."

He nodded slowly. "Are there any you have been considering?"

"There have been a few," she replied. "The thing is, though, none of them seem to fit him. He's just got this whole little personality already that there's no way I could give a name just because I enjoy the name. It needs to be one that fits him."

"Agreed," Zechs responded. "Is there an estimate of when I will get to meet him?"

Noin smiled at her lover. "The doctors want to give him at least a day, possibly two or three, to relax and recover from our long trip," she explained. "They're keeping him in the medical ward just to be safe. They say there is only a very low chance that he would require medical attention, but they want to be cautious."

"Seems like a wise decision."

Again it was quiet between them. Once upon a time, not all that long ago, they would have been able to talk about anything. They had faced long periods of time apart before. And they had certainly gone through strained and painful times in their lives together. But everything suddenly seemed taboo.

They might as well have been strangers.

/

"You are never, ever, ever leaving again," Duo commanded.

Hilde smirked as she flopped down on the couch. "What makes you think you can boss me around?" she teased.

Her boyfriend gave her a glare. "Oh, I know damn well my words aren't going to stop you from doing anything. But I'm pretty damn sure that you know I'm not going to sit quietly by over something like this."

"Yeah, I noticed when you guys managed to find us," Hilde agreed. "Most impressive, by the way."

"No, that wasn't the impressive part," Duo pointed out. "The impressive part was that you and Noin managed to completely disappear in a way where _we_ couldn't find you for months. I didn't think anyone but Zechs knew how to go off grid like that. By the way, nice dye job."

Hilde stuck out her tongue, and she went slightly cross eyed as she looked at her oddly colored bangs. "I don't know what I'm going to do about that. It's hardly the kind that washes out, but if they make my color in a bottle, I've never seen it."

"So shave your head and let nature take its course," her boyfriend jokingly instructed. He was not at all surprised when a couch cushion was launched at his head. "What? It's guaranteed to make sure that all the hair on your head is one hundred percent your natural color!"

The young woman glared at her love. "You shave my head, I'm shaving yours."

"Hair talk over," he nervously agreed. There were a handful of things that Duo Maxwell did not mess around with, and his hair was at the top of that list. "But back to my original point, you're never, ever, ever leaving again."

"Yeah?" Hilde challenged. She got to her feet and placed her hands on her hips, staring him right in the eye as she said, "And how are you going to stop me if I choose to go?"

He groaned. "Okay, either you stop joking about leaving again right now, or I swear that tonight I'm going to install tracers in everything you've ever owned in your life, even if you don't own it any more. And before you ask how I'll do that, you know I'll find a way."

Hilde laughed. "You are one persistent son of a bitch, I'll give you that." Leaning forward, she gave him a kiss on the nose. "Well, it's settled then. No matter what, even if it means certain death and destruction for everyone and everything we love, I'm staying right here with you. You've got space for two of is in the cockpits of the mobile suits, right?"

"Hilde…"

"I know, I know," she chuckled. "I'm not leaving again, I promise."

Duo nodded and sat down on the couch, signaling for her to join him. "I still can't believe I fell for those stupid little tricks and didn't figure out you were gone for so long." He was speaking more so to himself than to her.

His girlfriend shrugged. "You weren't physically home because of your mission," she pointed out, "and I left just enough behind to make you not feel like you had to question whether I was there or not. And when I agreed to go, I had no idea it was going to go on for so long." She nuzzled against him and sighed. "I thought it would be a couple of weeks, maybe a couple months, tops. I had no clue that it would turn out like it did."

"Well, I'm proud of ya'," he responded, giving her a hug. "You really went above and beyond helping Noin out."

Hilde shrugged. "Honestly, the hardest part about something like that is trying not to kill the person you're stuck with all day."

The braided pilot laughed. "Yeah, because after God only knows how many missions I've done with Heero, I've never once had the urge to shoot him."

"And we're all very proud of you for that."

The couple enjoyed a quiet laugh before settling back in. Though they had been separated for months, their relationship had not missed a step. They were as tight as they ever were, able to joke and laugh and read one another almost flawlessly. It felt amazing to be back together in a physical sense, but emotionally they had never been apart.

/

Quatre looked into the bassinet and smiled. "Babies are so cute," he cooed.

Beside him, Wufei shook his head. "It is at moments like this," he said, "that it is hard to remember that you are one of the greatest pilots and best tacticians that has ever lived."

"What?" Quatre defended. "Babies _are _adorable. They are designed through thousands of generations of human evolution to be this cute so that parents are more inclined to take care of them. That's how our race has managed to survive and thrive for as long as it has. If not for something like this, we might never have come up as the dominant species of our world. It's biology. So shut up."

Trowa chuckled, but declined to offer comment. Sometimes it was far more fun to simply sit and watch the others.

Wufei rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Winner, you sound like a woman."

"I grew up with twenty-nine of them," Quatre pointed out. "When was the last time you socialized with one?" When the Chinese man failed to answer, Quatre turned his focus back to the child and simply said, "So how would you know?" He cooed over the babe a little longer before admiring how strong he seemed. "If it wasn't for the scar on his chest, I don't think I would have known that he had ever been sick."

"From what I have read, he is slightly smaller in size compared to others his age," Trowa pointed out.

Wufei scowled. "I still do not understand how we ended up being the ones to watch the child."

"Une told us to," Quatre bluntly pointed out. "That's how we ended up with it."

"And if she had simply ordered _you_ to do it," he bit out, "that would have made sense. You do possess certain qualities that indicate that you would be a good nurturer. But why the hell am I here?"

"Because Une told you to be," the blond pointed out again.

Sensing that he was in a losing fight on the topic, Wufei leaned against the wall and frowned. "Anyone who thinks I would be any good with a child must have suffered brain damage. The logical choices are you and Maxwell."

"Duo's…busy right now," Quatre answered, smirking. "After all, he and Hilde have been away from each other for a while. And while I thank you on your compliment on my caring nature, I don't exactly have a whole lot of experience with infants. Support needs to be here."

"So use Barton!" Wufei demanded. "What are there three of us here?"

Another chuckle came from the green eyed pilot. "According to Une, it is so if something comes up, one of us can hold the baby, one of us can stare at the baby and panic, and one of us can call and beg for help."

"I neither panic nor beg," Wufei proudly pointed out.

Quatre laughed. "Then you better hope that if something comes up it's not diaper based, because the only option you left for yourself was holding him."

Scowling once more, Wufei stopped arguing. Maybe if he stayed quiet, it would not be such an unbearable experience.

/

Noin looked away as she said, "They tell me you almost died."

Zechs looked at her, not sure why she seemed emotional over that statement. "It is not the first time my life has been in danger."

"No, but it's been the closest you've ever been to actually dying," she quickly pointed out. Anger seemed to fill her eyes. "How did it get that far?" she demanded. "Was there really no way for you to save yourself?"

"My mission was to capture and bring in the general," he defended.

But Noin was not going to hear it. "The general was virtually brain dead before you crashed," she hotly debated. "By the time you three made landfall, he was as good as dead. Which is exactly where he is now, by the way. He's dead."

Icy blue eyes glared at her. "Yes, I have been informed of that."

"So, to clarify," the tall woman aggressively went on, "you disappeared for months on end, stayed behind to infiltrate a group that did not need to be infiltrated, turned down the opportunity to get out with the rest of the boys, took a dumb ass trip to a colony you weren't entirely sure you could actually land on, and used resources that you could have spent keeping yourself safe on two others who had a best case scenario of prison, one of whom was most likely to end up being executed. Does that sound about right to you?"

She was mad. Livid, in fact. In all the years she had known him, through all the things she had sat by and watched him do, she could always find reason behind it. It was not always good reason, but she could understand his way of thinking. And more often than not, he left her behind. But all the other times he had left, she had been in a position of independence and freedom. She had been the same as she had always been before. She was strong, she was sure, and she could more than take care of herself. However, it appeared that her tolerance for his vanishing act had all but evaporated with the pregnancy. It had been a long, hard, life changing event, and he had not been there to share it with her. _They_ had made a life together. _They_ had become parents. _They_ had a little boy who needed a little extra support. And yet _she_ had done it without him.

Even as she chewed him out, though, she understood that it was not entirely his fault. He had been on assignment, and come hell or high water, Zechs was a man who got a job done. He had made judgment calls on a bad scenario with extremely limited information provided. He could not have known how disastrously it was going to end up. And he had hardly been given the opportunity to find out about the child. They had gone out of their to ensure that no one knew. That did not stop the hurting, though.

"Ever since I met you," she spoke, struggling with the words, "I have known that there would be a lot of give and take between us. Even before we acknowledged what we are to each other, I knew that things were going to happen that would make it hard. We served in the Earth's Sphere Alliance together. We served in Oz together. We've even been at war with each other in a way I don't think any other couple could ever understand. You have vanished and come back into my life so many times that I have almost lost count. But never, _never_, Zechs, did I think that I was ever going to have to go through something like having a child with a man who was not there with me."

Zechs sat quietly in his bed, unsure of how to respond. He felt angry that she seemed to blame him for a situation he could not have controlled. He was miserable that he had become a father months ago and had not ever known it. He was furious at Une for not calling him back immediately as soon as she had been aware of what was going on. There was so much to think about and to deal with, and there had been no time at all to prepare.

Noin sighed. She had gotten her frustration out of her system for the time being, and it was time to at least momentarily move on. "How much can you move?" she asked him, her voice far more gentle than it had been a moment earlier.

"I will regain function," he bluntly answered.

Noin narrowed her eyes at him. "That wasn't my question and you know it. Now come on." Walking to the foot of the bed, she pushed the covers up and dropped her forearm across the balls of his feet. "Can you push against that?"

"Noin…"

"Can you or can't you?" she interrupted.

He shot her a dirty look. "I can," he bitterly defended.

"Yeah?" she shot back. "Prove it."

Her taunting had more than gotten to him, and though his muscles were extremely weak and his ability to feel his legs was minimal, he pushed a resistive force against her arm as hard as he could. He refused to back down.

Noin glanced up at him. "Is that the best you can do?" she pushed. He increased his efforts, but the result was minimal. "Come on, Zechs, harder!" she demanded. A dark chuckle escaped her lover, and she glared up at him. "What?"

"This sounds oddly familiar to the last conversation we had."

It took a moment for the innuendo to sink in, but when it did, she stood up and gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. "You're going to be fine, you jackass," she informed him.

"I never doubted that I would be," he countered.

Taking a seat, Noin shook her head. "So what do you want to do?" she asked.

"About what?" came his reply.

"About, well everything." Noin rolled out her shoulders, stiff from all her recent traveling. "We have a lot to figure out, the big one being what the hell we're going to name our son. We're going to want to get that one taken care of before your sister steps in and does it for us."

"Agreed."

"We also need to figure out," she went on, "what exactly we're doing with this relationship, how we want living arrangements handled, work schedules, physical therapy…"

Zechs had to interrupt. "Yes, a lot, I get it."

"However," Noin pointed out, "I do need to say one more thing before we start hashing out details." She got to her feet, leaned in, and gave him a deep kiss. "I love you, Zechs. And no matter what, I always will."


	28. Chapter 28

His grip tightened dramatically on the bars as his legs began to quiver. There had been so many injuries in his life that he had long since lost track of most of them. But never in his life had anything left him to the point of feeing truly crippled. It had been months since he had been able to start his physical therapy, but he was not even close to making the progress he had wanted to. Even with the doctors constantly telling him his progress was nothing short of miraculous, his frustration shone through. His body was screaming at him to just get up and walk, to act just as it had before the mission had ever been assigned.

"We told you it was going to be difficult," the doctor patiently explained.

However, Zechs could not accept that response. "Even difficult should not be taking this long," he growled.

The doctor moved to continue explaining, but Noin stopped him. "Give us a minute," she softly ordered. The doctor gave her a concerned look, but he did leave quietly. As the door closed behind the man, Noin turned to her lover with a glare. "Your attitude is completely uncalled for."

Zechs returned her glare. "If you were here…"

"If it was me, I'd be just as pissed," she interrupted. "I would be mad as hell that a top flight pilot like me was stuck working on skills most two year olds have mastered. I'd be furious at constantly feeling like all of those years of work and training were a complete waste of time, that I'd lost years of my life working toward a goal that seems lost. But I'm not where you are right now. I'm outside of that. And that, Zechs, is why I can see it clearly."

The former prince scowled. "If you are attempting to cheer me up, Noin, you are failing miserably."

"Well, I suppose that means it's a good thing I turned away from a career as a life coach," she returned. Slowly she approached him. She cupped his face in her hands, and guided him fully into a standing position. His hands tightened on the bars as he fought for balance, and while it was not easy, he was able to maintain it briefly. "Remember," she gently mentioned, "we are blessed even to have you able to talk right now. I know this does not ease your pain much, if at all, but we have been given more than one miracle in the past year. You are here. Our son is here. Yes, we have had some crappy ass luck in our lives, but I like to think that we store up what luck we can so we have it when we need it most."

"That might be the single most ludicrous thing I have ever heard you say," Zechs shot.

Noin smirked. "Hey, I already mentioned that I'm not a great motivational speaker. Now getting someone geared up for battle, well, that I happen to be terrific at." With her hands still on him, she could easily feel his body lose stability. "I've got you," she assured. "Do you want to sit, or to keep going?"

He did not say a word as he adjusted his grip and tried to get back into form. Before Noin even had a chance to retrieve the doctor, he was starting his routine over again. As such, the doctor did not seem pleased when he reentered the room.

"I know you want to speed things up, but this is not the way," he scolded. "Trying this without assistance is a good way for you to hurt yourself further. You'll only succeed in setting back your own desired work."

It was with a tired sigh that Noin took her seat. It seemed to be the same thing every time she was present during his sessions, and from what she had gathered, they were not all that different when she was gone. He pushed himself too hard and apparently relied heavily on the idea that someday, everything would reset. And the longer he held on to that fantasy, the harder it was getting on him that it was not coming true.

/

Noin frowned as she checked in at the front desk. She was not happy that she was being kept away from her home as long as she was. However, she was still a part of Preventers, and with that came responsibilities. Fortunately for her, it was not a long wait before she was called in.

"I am getting disturbing reports."

Noin's face remained neutral. "Yes, Une, it is nice to see you, too."

"I did not call you in here to exchange pleasantries," her commander bitterly spoke, "and you have known me long enough to know that if I have something on my mind, there is nothing you can do to change it."

It took a fair amount of will power to keep from making a snarky comment. Years spent with those boys had added certain quirks to her personality. "What reports are you getting?" she asked.

"We have a problem with Zechs."

"You always have a problem with Zechs." When her superior shot a look showing she was not amused, Noin simply rolled one shoulder. "I would apologize, but I'm extremely tired and you know I'm right. If you wish to have me written up, I won't fight you on it. I'm too tired to care."

Une stood up, her back straight, as always. "You aren't well," she observed.

"I'm tired," Noin defended. "I have a seven month old son who just figured out how to crawl, and I work full time. I'm not sure when you think I'm going to rest."

"Get help," Une simply commanded. "Now, back to the issue at hand. I am getting some disturbing reports on Zechs and his level of activity."

Noin's sigh was long and tired. "He's pushing himself too hard," she admitted. "He's not taking his time."

Slowly, Une sat in her chair. "That is not the issue I was talking about." Her voice had softened, a fact that scared the younger woman. "Noin, I have been sent his medical profile. From what I am reading, we have an enormous problem on our hands." She gestured for her subordinate to take a seat. "I take it from your earlier statement that they have not told you."

The younger woman felt her heart beating quickly. "Haven't told me what?" she demanded.

Une closed her eyes for a brief moment. "Noin, from what I have read, Zechs will likely not be making much more progress at all."

Noin's eyes grew large. "No," she begged. "He's just pushing too hard right now. When he dials it back, he'll start making more progress."

"No," Une bluntly went on. "The damage is too extensive to his nervous system. There may be some things we can do that will get him slightly further, but the testing has been thorough."

"Why are you telling me this?" she demanded. "Why aren't you telling him?"

"He has been told," Une said. "Over a month ago."

Noin froze. A month. An entire month had gone by since he had been given the information, and not once had he brought it up to her. His temper had changed, though. Things that once would have been treated as the small setbacks they were had become large fights. "Excuse me," she darkly said. In spite of her commander ordering her to sit down, Noin turned and left the room. Angrily she returned to the therapy room, and she threw the door open. Zechs was alone again, and seemed to be on the verge of leaving before she startled him with her sudden appearance.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me when you found out?" she yelled.

Zechs' glare was icy. "You didn't need to know."

"Like hell I didn't!" his lover snapped back. "We live together! We're trying to actually have a real relationship, and you think something like _this_ isn't important? God damn it, Zechs, I am so sick of this bullshit! It was bad enough that you just up and left one day for a mission without giving me more than one night of warning, but that one I can get over. It was an official mission, with an official need to know list. But this, _this_, something that will just about definitely affect the rest of our lives? How _dare_ you not tell me!"

The tall man sat there, stunned. They as a couple had been through several little spats in the past, and more than one fair sized fight. But even when they had stood against one another in war, they had always maintained an almost odd sense of calmness. Noin had never, ever yelled at him in anger before. "What do you want me to say?" he softly asked.

Though he had meant it as a serious question, Noin heard it as a snide remark. "That's all you're giving me?" she demanded. "Some half-assed request for me to write an apology for you?" She did not give him the opportunity to respond. "I have to go," she harshly excused. "The nanny is only staying for another hour, and _our son_ needs his parents." Not even a glance was given before she marched out of the room, firmly shutting the door behind her, leaving Zechs alone with his thoughts.

He remained in his seated position, still in a state of shock over what had happened. For weeks had had been justifying his actions to himself. In his mind, she truly had not needed to know. He had pulled off impossible recoveries before, and he had no reason to believe that his hard work and effort would not make the impossible happen yet again. Telling Noin what the doctors had said, that he might have already hit his limit with how far he would recover, would only have caused her needless worry. In his opinion, Noin had been under too much pressure as it was. She had not needed anything else added to her burdens.

But as he sat in his chair, he slowly began to understand what Noin had just been put through. In his attempts to spare her from needless worry, he had inadvertently left her totally unprepared. She had been completely blindsided with news that not only would her partner likely never be able to recover fully, but that he had known for almost a month and had deliberately chosen to not tell her. In that moment, even he could not deny that, on a certain level, he had betrayed her trust.

That did not, however, stop his anger at the fact that she had been told at all. It was his news to tell and no one else's. Angrily he went into the hallway and headed through the corridor to the elevator, and went straight to the top floor. He had a word or two to share with a certain commander of his.

/

The poor secretary found herself in a position no person would envy. Her high commander was in a foul mood, with was something everyone knew was dangerous and to be avoided at all possible costs. The next two most powerful people she had ever heard of, one of whom was essentially second in command and the other the master of special operations, had been sighted heading toward the office. All three of those people were furious with each other. And the poor, innocent woman was about to be caught in the middle of it all.

The outer doors to the main office began to open, and the secretary found herself dramatically tensing up as she prayed it was simply the mail. Her face betrayed none of her tension as she smiled to the arriving person and asked, "How may I help you?"

Zechs ignored her and went straight for the door to Une, growling when he found it locked. "Unlock it," he commanded.

Still calm on the outside, the woman responded, "I'm sorry, the commander has requested that she not be disrupted for the afternoon. However, if you would like to see her at some point today, I may be able to pencil you into her schedule for about an hour from now."

"I am not waiting," he snapped. "She will be seeing me now."

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," she firmly stated.

Zechs growled. "You listen to me…"

"Don't you bully her," an angry voice called out from behind them.

The secretary felt a trickle of sweat dripping down her neck as she recognized the voice. "Miss Noin, how pleasant to see you again," she managed to get out. "I'm sorry, I do not have you scheduled in for a secondary appointment today. Would you like me to get you on the schedule for as soon as possible?"

"I need to speak with her now," Noin grimly said.

Zechs glared at his lover. "You can speak with her as soon as I'm done with her."

Noin returned his look. "You are not in any position to tell me anything right now."

"I thought you were pissy because I _didn't_ tell you anything." He had snapped the words before he could think about them, and he regretted them instantly. "I am sorry," he genuinely apologized.

Unlike earlier that day, Noin could hear some of the sincerity in his words. She began to speak to him, but the doors violently opened and their furious commander stomped out of her office.

"What the hell is all this commotion out here?" she shouted. Enraged, she hollered at her secretary, "Your job is to make sure that I am not interrupted as I get my work done. Is there any reason at all you are incapable of that?"

The young woman cringed, but Noin intervened. "Don't you take this out on her," she challenged. "If Zechs and I are going to fight, the Gundam pilots couldn't stop us. What hope does she have?"

A small smirk crossed Zechs' features. "You certainly sound like a mother," he commented.

Une angrily looked at the three people in her outer office. "Is there a reason any of you people are here?" she darkly asked.

"Yes," the couple answered simultaneously.

Une had to repress the urge to groan at their reaction. "Just get in here before I shoot you."

/

Not a word was spoken as they returned to their quarters. Une had been undeniably clear in her message that whatever their issues were, they were to be dealt with immediately or both were to be suspended without pay. She could not tolerate soldiers who were too distracted by "trivial problems", and regardless of their impressive skill levels, they were being held accountable. Too many things had come to the commander's desk about their problems, including the two of them. So she had a message sent to the nanny that they would be delayed in picking up their son, and told them not to report back until they at least had a strategy for moving on.

They remained quiet as they entered the small area they had come to call home. A brief glance was exchanged, but nothing more than that as they went to their bedroom. Noin let out a long, tired breath as she sat on the edge of the bed. "We need to talk." No verbal reply was given to her, but the woman knew well enough that if there was not a direct confrontation from her partner, it usually meant that he was at least somewhat onboard with continuing a conversation.

"You and I have had a bitch of a couple years," she softly began. "Everything that's happened to us…the mission, the pregnancy, you being stranded, his heart problem, your injuries…everything has just been slamming into us again and again and again. We have taken the brunt of some extreme burdens before, but, at least in my mind, this has been different." She paused briefly, subconsciously studying the back of her hands as she gathered her thoughts. "When we were cadets, we were expected to be the best, and we pulled it off. When we were soldiers, we were expected to fight for a better world, and even though we disagreed on how that could get done, we still did it. When we were told that a new power was rising up, and that we had to gather up our forces again and fight in what should have been a peaceful world, we did it. We have always met every problem head on, and we have always prevailed."

"That's what soldiers do," Zechs blandly chimed in.

Noin frowned at his words. "Yeah, it is," she agreed, "but I think that's always been our problem." When she saw the confused look on his face, she explained. "You and I have basically been in the military our whole lives. We were trained to handle _military _situations, and it's hard to deny that we did it well. But let's face it, you and I have never had a chance to really learn how to actually interact with people outside of an at least vaguely militaristic arena. We need to be able to talk as a _couple_, not as comrades."

The blonde maintained his silence. So far his partner had not been inaccurate in her assessment of their situation. He agreed with every word she said. But as for how to move forward, he was at a loss. Personal relationships were hardly his specialty. Most of the people he knew only associated with him for his skills as a warrior. Relena had been known to send cards and make an occasional visit, but their relationship had never been particularly close. Her visits had always seemed more a diplomatic mission than a family gathering. Treize had been a friend of sorts, both his supporter and his manipulator, but that was hardly a standard socialization. As far as creating a personal relationship with someone was concerned, he was essentially crippled.

When a minute had come and gone without any physical reaction on his part, Noin sighed again and got to her feet. "We've never really talked about this, you and I," she softly admitted. "I think somewhere in our minds we just assumed that this would happen and that it would work out. Even when we had disagreements about our situation, we never actually sat down and discussed _us_. We didn't when we were cadets. We didn't when we were in Oz. We didn't during the war, or after forming Preventers, or God only knows how many other times. We didn't even do it when we began sleeping together and moved in together. We just _do_ these things. And I can't just _do_ this anymore."

Zechs immediately snapped his head up. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying…" She stopped herself and took a moment to think about exactly what she needed to say. "I'm _asking_," she began again, "a question that I should have asked you years ago. I'm asking if you want me to be with you for the rest of our lives, as your partner in every sense of the term. I'm asking you to trust me enough to share your darkest moments and to stand by your side during your greatest triumphs. I'm asking you if you want to raise children with me and grow old with me. I'm asking you if you want me by your side as we grow old together, and we look back on all of the wonderful things we have done. I'm asking because I honestly don't know what your answer is. I need an answer from you on this, Zechs, and I need it now."

"Of course I want those things with you," he responded.

"Do you?" she quickly returned. "Because you've never said so before."

His face remained serious as he answered, "I never felt like it needed to be said before. We just knew."

The brunette sat down, shaking her head as she did so. "This is the problem I was talking about," she said, clearly exasperated. "We always assume the other one 'just knows'. We can't do that anymore."

"I agree."

Noin blinked as she looked over at her lover, clearly surprised. "What?"

"I said that I agree," Zechs repeated. "It is a poor system, and it needs to be upgraded."

A small groan escaped from Noin as she asked, "Is that how you see this? Us? As a system that gets regular upgrades?"

Zechs seemed slightly uncomfortable at the question, but his answer was honest. "It is the only way I think I can."

"I suppose that'll have to do, then," Noin accepted. "On the bright side, you're fantastic at keeping your machinery up to date and functioning smoothly. Maybe that is the best way for you to approach it."

A smirk appeared on his face. "What kind of maintenance is required?" he asked.

Noin rolled her eyes. "I think you're going to end up taking this machine metaphor a little too seriously."

"Better than not seriously at all," he pointed out.

Noin smiled. "Was that a joke?"

Red began to highlight his cheeks. "Perhaps a poor attempt at one."

"You're right," she agreed, "you could do better than that. Let's get serious for a minute here." With great care, she reached over and grabbed his hand. "You say you want to be with me, and that's wonderful to hear. But before we go any further, I need to know what that means to _you_."

He was quiet, his eyes on his hands as he thought. "I have spent the majority of my life," he began, slowly and softly, "actively avoiding thoughts of a long term life plan. More often than not, there has been no realistic reason in my mind to hold out hope that such a thing could end well. You know as well as I that a soldier's life can end at any moment. And because of that, I have formed a mentality that only focuses on surviving until I achieve my objective. When a mission is done, I find a new one. There has never been a long term plan. I am a pilot and soldier, and this is the only way I have managed to address my life."

Noin's expression was hard to read as she pointed out, "I am a pilot and soldier, too."

"And undeniably one of the best," he immediately agreed. "But you have always had something that I have lacked."

"What?" she asked.

"Hope."

With a frown, she told him, "You've had hope."

"No, not like you," he countered. "You hope. You dream. And that is what you have always used to drive you to all that you achieve. You hope for an ideal outcome. I simply hope to avoid total catastrophe."

"Hey, that's still hope," she weakly pointed out.

His eyes slid in her direction, but they did not meet hers. "It is not the same."

"But it's not nothing," she argued.

Finally he did look at her directly. "See?" he pointed out, traces of a smile forming on his face. "Even now you speak with optimism."

Noin smiled. Slowly she took her seat beside her lover. "I speak with optimism," she softly said, "because deep down, under the military training and battle scenarios, I really do believe that there is more to us, to this, than what we've been giving it so far."

"Then tell me," he asked, "what it is you see in this."

She was stunned by his question, but it was a fair one, and deserving of an honest answer. "I see the potential for a long life together," she explained. "I see two people who have actually been to the ends of the Earth and back and still want to be with one another. We've already been together through our darkest times. We've already seen each other at our lowest points, and yet here we are, still together, still trying, still in love. I also see a strongly worded letter going to our beloved Commander if she tries to separate us one more time in the name of a mission, and if that doesn't work, I'm showing her that she's not the only expert marksman on the payroll." When Zechs gave her a questioning look at that last portion, Noin shrugged. "She's rubbing off on me."

"Clearly," he responded with a smirk.

Noin smiled as she took his hand. "We need to go get our son," she gently said, kissing him on the cheek. "Then we can all go home."


End file.
